In the celebration of 25 years since Nigeria sent her first satellite to space, the Federal government commissioned the Advance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Laboratory in Abuja.
Speaking while commissioning the Laboratory at the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji said the laboratory will help the country a lot in terms of security, and monitoring of environmental and agricultural purposes.
He explained that the use of technology will also help the country in the surveillance of energy installations like gas leakages.
“The Unmanned vehicle can identify gas leakages, even the pipeline vandalization. We can, as a matter of fact beef up our revenue by monitoring the way ships come into this country” he stated.
Nnaji noted that with the help of satellite, Nigeria will also be able to monitor the environment, particularly for agricultural purposes.
Also speaking, the Director General of NARDA, Dr. Mathew Olumide Adepoju said the use of drones is essential in the application of agricultural inputs.
He reaffirmed that the drones had the capacity to effectively boost the country’s agriculture turnover, urging relevant stakeholders to key into the use of technology.
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According to Wikipedia, five satellites have been launched by the Nigerian government into outer space.
The NigeriaSat-1 was the first Nigerian satellite, built by a United Kingdom-based satellite technology company, Surrey Space Technology Limited (SSTL ltd) under the Nigerian government sponsorship for $30 million.
The satellite was launched by Kosmos-3M rocket from Russian Plesetsk spaceport on 27 September 2003.
The primary objectives of the Nigeriasat-1 were: to give early warning signals of environmental disaster; to help detect and control desertification in the northern part of Nigeria; to assist in demographic planning; to establish the relationship between vectors and the environment that breeds malaria and to give early warning signals on future outbreaks of meningitis using remote sensing technology; to provide the technology needed to bring education to all parts of the country through distant learning; and to aid in conflict resolution and border disputes by mapping out state and International borders.
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