18/06/2023
THIS DAY, LAST YEAR 🤓🤓🤓🤓
One of the panelists, Ms. Wanjiku Kanjumba is presently the CEO and Co-founder of Us-based space company Vicillion Inc. They just launched a Ksh. 50B the homology fund intended to set up a space port in East Africa.
02/05/2023
DEMOCRATIZING ACCESS TO SPACE IN KENYA:
A consortium comprising Siaya Institute of Technology, Siaya Community Library, Kito NGO and STEM 2030 Ltd enabled launch of a High Altitude Balloon this past Saturday to create awareness about space and STEM education with support from Prof Richard Eason, US company LaunchWithUs, ClydeSpace and Siaya-based AquaRossa Water Bottling company that had it's brand lifted for photography at 110,000 ft.
This inaugural flight is the first of a number of planned school holiday STEM camps that will be offered with support from corporate partners seeking to connect with the 11 million working-age young people all over Kenya.
Click for the moment we took to flight: https://lnkd.in/dhPEQX28
28/04/2023
WE'RE HEADED BACK TOWARDS SPACE
After a tumultuous 2020 - 2022 we're back to enabling hands-on access to space for Kenyan students with exciting activities.
We launch tomorrow at 0900 hours and the kids are really excited.
13/04/2023
Something exciting loading in the STEM field this month.
17/10/2022
THE SPACE INDUSTRY'S HAS FUN JOBS.
Dr. Rajan Bedi is CEO of UK-based Spacechips Ltd, an SME in the global space electronics business with 70 customers in 25 countries.
His role involves commercial and engineering operations, strategy, governance and compliance activities as the company which he founded in 2014 offers a broad spectrum of services ranging from asisting space companies develop capability and deliver to their customers right-first-time in the exacting field of space operations through training courses on space electronics. The company also provides space electronics design consultancy services to manufacturers of satellites and spacecraft to enable them exploit the latest advances in the ever-evolving field of space electronics.
He is clearly a very busy man but when I recently reached out to him seeking how we can invlove young Kenyans in the exciting field where he operates he directed me to his blog "Out of This World Design" that is a regular feature in the online engineering community pblication EDN (Electronics Design News).
I am sure that those interested in the fieldofelectronics will be excited by the content available at:
Out-of-this-World Design News and Insights - EDN
EDN offers the latest Out-of-this-World Design news and analysis in the electronics industry. Visit to learn more.
20/09/2022
TRAINING OF TRAINERS - CANSATS IN KENYA
An exciting and very educative workshop facilitated by Dr. Norilmi Amilia Ismail, that is training young people in Kenya to develop the skills that will enable them instruct high school students and even those in technical institutes in a manner that demystifies cansats technologh and space mission design, as an avenue to developing greater uptake of STEM careeer pathways and a space technology talent bench for the private space sector in Kenya.
12/09/2022
JO SIAYA - THIS ONE'S FOR YOU.
The Arab and His Camel - Short Stories
It was a cold winter night. An Arab was resting in his tent when his camel peeped inside and asked, “Master, it’s very cold outside. Please allow me to put my head inside your tent.” The kind master took pity on the poor animal and agreed to the camel’s request. A little later, the camel ask...
09/09/2022
BRINGING SPACE DOWN TO KENYA
Each year young Europeans are invited to apply their minds in being inventive, thinking unconventionally and generating real-world solution to human challenges when they participate at the ESA CanSat competition.
For instance in 2021 high school team sCANSATi from Italy analysed air quality during their cansat's flight using a particle matter sensor and collected bacteria in the atmosphere in order to carry out a bacteriological analysis; whereas team LatSat from tiny Latvia were able to acquire and analyze visual data with potential applications including land surveying, animal population tracking to traffic management at intersections.
Now, with support from Malaysia's SpaceIn and Dr. Norilmi Amilia Ismail we have received both technical and material support that will:
1. enable us develop a team of trainers in Kenya to work with high school and technical institute teams in understanding cansat technology.
2. Offer the nation a template to scale cansat technology nationally.
3. Enable a team from Kenya participate at the 2023 World Cansat & Rocketry (Africa) Challenge in Tunisia.
Our first FREE-OF-COST "Training of Trainers" session takes place on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st September 2022. We have secured a second cansat training kit which has expanded available slots for young technologists who are welcome to participate by sending their application letter to [email protected]
If Europe can inspire creative problem-solving approaches for her youth with cansats, then we too Can.
08/09/2022
SPARKING SPACE INTEREST IN AFRICA
THIS IS S.P.A.R.K. (Student Payload Academic Rocket Kit). It was a product and service that was up to 2021 being offered by forward-looking Singapore-based space launch company Equatorial Space but has since been withdrawn.
SPARK was designed to fly up to 3.9 kms into the troposphere carrying either three cubesats or 6 cansat kits with parachutes, for ejection at a preconfigured altitude and descent before also descending back on parachute. It was additionally designed for reuse and had one of the safest launch systems based on remote loading of Nitrous-Oxide that would be ignited using a high voltage dielectric breakdown of an insulated wire.
In a the space technology sector where speed is key, SPARK represented an opportunity for Africa to move up the space technology value chain by offering any university team or technical institute in this region a way to launch and test nanosat payloads or develop cansat challenges safely, reliably and cost-effectively due to it's ease of use and affordable cost.
It is our hope that the company may reconsider offering this technology to Africa even as we continue building a vibrant private space sector in Africa.
Stay tuned.
28/07/2022
CANSAT TRAINING FOR KENYA
Are you a recent electronics engineer in Kenya with either an advanced diploma or degree in electronics/electrical engineering and interested in a career in space engineering?
One of our technical partners is conducting research in space education and as part of their activities will be offering a T
training-of-trainers course to10 young Kenyans, that will impart skills needed in creating space engineering awareness among high school and primary school students using the cansat kit pictured below.
The overarching objective is to gather participant feedback that will be used in enabling refinements in the course to increase course efficacy.
A cansat is a simulation of a space satellite that has all subsystems fitted within the volume of a soda can and weighs around 330gms. It enables educators and students immerse themselves in the full cycle of space satellite mission design and development in much the same way as would apply in an actual spacecraft.
The course runs in August 2022 on a date that is yet to be determined and will be structured as a 5-day online learning activity with hands-on practice on a kit that our partner has availed for demonstration purposes thereafter.
We encourage young fresh graduates who may want to gain exposure to the exciting field of space education to apply by submitting a one-page cover letter expressing their interest to [email protected] by Wednesday10th August -2022. Slots are limited and choice of participants is at the disecretion of our partner who will respond directly to the successful applicants.