The Ghana-based African Center for Science and International Security (AFRICSIS) recently held a two-day event on 4 and 7 October 2013 in the nation’s capital city Accra to commemorate the 1999 UN-declared World Space Week. Hosted in the Nuclear Security Support Center of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission’s (GAEC) Graduate School of Nuclear and Allied Science, over 80 participants attended each event.

Participants comprised of local residents and junior high school forms 1-3 students and staff of the GAEC Basic School in one of Accra’s small towns, Kwabenya, where the GAEC commission is located. The event activities are aimed to contribute to the heightened global consciousness of space among Ghana’s decision makers, legislators and the public. The World Space Week 2013 theme, “Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth,” establishes the connection between humanity’s quest to inquire into the life supporting features of the planet Mars that could be used as an off-the Earth base for scientists to better learn and understand human presence and evolution of our solar system bodies including our planet Earth.

The AFRICSIS center organized two space education and outreach events – a lecture about Mars Curiosity on 4 October and an online SpaceSoc’s Mars4U conference on 7 October. In line with the goals of the UN-declared World Space Week celebration, those activities were conducted to:
 Educate the event participants about the benefits that they receive from space,
 Encourage greater use of space for sustainable economic development,
 Demonstrate public support for the emerging Ghana Space Program,

 Excite young people about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,
 Foster inter-school and intra-national cooperation in space outreach and education.

Day one activities were two lecture series, one on a nuclear engineering topic and another on the state of the art NASA’s deep space mission rover. First, Simon Adu, a nuclear engineering doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Nuclear and Allied Science and a research scientist in the GAEC Radiation Protection Institute, presented selected highlights of how nuclear science and technology has improved medical diagnostics and radiation physics research in Ghana.

Next, Michael Afful, a mechanical engineering graduate from Stellenbosch University in South Africa discussed the socio-economic developmental benefits of communication and remote sensing satellite services in the world including Ghana. As an example benefit, he pointed to the proliferation of cellular telephone operators in Ghana. As of August 2013, Ghana had six mobile telephone operators, contrary to the lone state operator that served the nation in the early nineties. The Ghanaian telecommunication industry now employs hundreds of thousands of citizens who earn good incomes, which has improved the quality of life of those families significantly.

Afful concluded his discourse with a photo exhibition of the U.S. Mars Curiosity mission, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Martian red planet. The Curiosity robot was designed and equipped with sensors to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes, explained Afful. In other words, he continued, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability.”

Day two was a real-time online interactive video conference on Mars settlement. The Ghanaian students were connected via an educational school

forum, SpaceSoc’s Mars4U conference, to three professional online educators — Anmol Singh, Mohammad Yousuf, and Tom Diffenbach. According to Tom, the mission of the Mars4U conference is to help worldwide students who want to have personalized, lifelong, and interactive education about Mars settlement and human habitability. This event was intended to enable and empower the students of GAEC Basic school to understand basic concepts related to “Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth.” During the conference, the students asked myriad questions and received commentaries from SpaceSoc’s staff about issues that  support life on Mars.

At the end of the two-day event, 90% of the students stated that they were motivated by the knowledge they had gained about Mars exploration and how that knowledge can enable humans to discover Earth. On the first day, when asked who wish to become an astronaut, only one male student indicated that he wishes to become Ghana’s first astronaut to conduct research on challenging medical issues affecting his country. However, on the final day, after the lectures and interactive discussions, over 40 students including several females expressed interest to become part of Ghana’s future space program. For example, one of the form one students, Elikem Alias Ifeani Ichukwu, who was interviewed at the end of the event stated that he will study science and mathematics in order to become Ghana’s astronaut. He added that if he achieves his dream, Ghana could become one of the few nations in the world to have sent a man into space.

In conclusion, World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition on Earth. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates commemorate two important space events: the 4 October 1957 launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, thus opening the way for space exploration and, ten years later, on 10 October 1967, the signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. By celebrating World Space Week each year, awareness of human dependence on space application and services in many key areas of economic development is emphasized. Furthermore, government responsibilities under international commitment to exploit space for peaceful purposes only is highlighted.

Authors: Hubert Foy and Wakia Beatrice