The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) says it is engaging space science technology to boost agricultural products for food security in the country.

Dr Rakiya Babamaaji, the Head, Natural Resources Management Division of NASRDA, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Babamaaji explained that space science technology could be deployed into agriculture through the application of Geospatial technology that involved Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System application.

She said that geospatial technology could be used to map and monitor the location of natural resources, take inventory of vegetation and for smart agriculture and water resources management among others.

She further said the Agency had in May, commenced a Space-Based Smart Agriculture for Food Security in Nigeria.

Babamaaji said that the programme was in line with government’s mandate to ensure food security and enable the country achieve Sustainable Development Goal Two, aimed at ending hunger and increasing availability of food.

“We are trying to use space technology in agriculture and we have a programme called Space Base Smart Agriculture for Food Security in Nigeria which will address food availability.

“Under the programme, there is the Crop Watch project, a platform used to monitor agricultural activities across the country using geospatial technology.

“Under this project, we are going to gather all the spatial data available with restrictions to agriculture, so that farmers can know what is happening in their farms, from the cropping to monitoring the farmland.

“The project will provide the farmers with the climate data, letting them know when to plant, when to apply fertilizer, different soil type in terms of fertility,’’ she said.

“We want to achieve this by engaging farmers on their phones, use of jingles in the radio which could possibly be transmitted in the three major languages and English to reach rural farmers.”

The official said they were working with relevant stakeholders in the country, including the China Academy of Science and China Remote Sensing Centre as technical partners towards achieving the Crop Watch project.

Babamaaji also said the programme would be addressing the Value Supply Chain, whereby challenges faced by farmers from the beginning of the farming season to harvest time would be reviewed.

“We are trying to look at the challenges that prevent them from achieving maximum production in their farming activities and we have chosen a farm in Kuje and in Nasarawa to start this assessment.’’

Babamaaji, however, decried the dearth of data, funding to support the project and lack of awareness among farmers on the importance of space technology to farming.

She recalled that the management of the agency has been advocating for new and advanced satellites that would aid provision of data and help to plan better towards enhanced precision agriculture.

“Most of the farmers don’t know the importance of using satellite or geospatial technology in agriculture, so there is need for us to create more awareness on that.’’

She said that the agency was taking seriously the deployment of space science technology in other sectors to advance good governance and the socio-economic development of the nation. (NAN)

Astronomers have discovered a new class of planets which could support life, greatly accelerating the search for life outside our Solar System.

In the search for life elsewhere, researchers have mostly looked for planets of a similar size, mass, temperature and atmospheric composition to Earth.

But University of Cambridge astronomers believe there may be more promising possibilities out there.

They have identified a new class of habitable exoplanets, dubbed Hycean planets: hot, ocean-covered planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres, which were more numerous and observable than Earth-like planets.

According to the scientists, the findings could mean the discovery of biosignatures of life outside our Solar System is a real possibility within the next two or three years.

Dr Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, who led the research, said: “Hycean planets openned a whole new avenue in our search for life elsewhere.’’

Many of the prime candidates of these planets identified by the researchers were bigger and hotter than Earth.

However, they still have the characteristics to host large oceans that could support microbial life similar to that found in some of Earth’s most extreme aquatic environments, researchers suggest.

The planets also allowed for a far wider habitable zone, or Goldilocks zone, compared to Earth-like planets.

This means that they could still support life even though they lie outside the range where a planet similar to Earth would need to be in order to be habitable.

Since the first exoplanet was discovered 30 years ago, thousands of other planets have been discovered outside of our Solar System.

The majority is planets between the sizes of Earth and Neptune, often referred to as super-Earths or mini-Neptunes, and can be predominantly rocky or ice giants with hydrogen-rich atmospheres, or something in between.

Earlier studies of such planets found that the pressure and temperature beneath their hydrogen-rich atmospheres would be too high to support life.

However, a recent study on the mini-Neptune K2-18b by Dr Madhusudhan’s team found that in certain conditions these planets could support life.

This prompted detailed investigation into the full range of planetary and stellar properties for which these conditions were possible, which known exoplanets may satisfy those conditions, and whether their biosignatures may be observable.

The investigation led researchers to identify a new class of planets, Hycean planets, with massive planet-wide oceans beneath hydrogen-rich atmospheres.

Hycean planets can be up to 2.6 times larger than Earth and have atmospheric temperatures up to nearly 200 degrees Celsius.

The astronomers suggested such planets also included tidally locked dark Hycean worlds that may have habitable conditions only on their permanent night sides, and “cold” Hycean worlds that received little radiation from their stars.

Size alone was not enough to determine whether a planet was Hycean, and other aspects such as mass, temperature and atmospheric properties were required for confirmation.

Dr Madhusudhan said: “essentially, when we’ve been looking for these various molecular signatures, we have been focusing on planets similar to Earth, which was a reasonable place to start.’’

“But we think Hycean planets offer a better chance of finding several trace biosignatures.’’

Co-author Anjali Piette, also from the University of Cambridge, added: “It’s exciting that habitable conditions could exist on planets so different from Earth.’’

The team has identified a sizeable sample of potential Hycean worlds which were prime candidates for detailed study with next-generation telescopes.

Telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), that was due to be launched later this year.

These planets all orbit red dwarf stars between 35-150 light years away close by astronomical standards.

It was thought that planned JWST observations of the most promising candidate, K2-18b, could lead to the detection of one or more biosignature molecules.

“A biosignature detection will transform our understanding of life in the universe.

“We need to be open about where we expect to find life and what form that life could take, as nature continues to surprise us in often unimaginable ways,” said Dr Madhusudhan.

The findings were reported in The Astrophysical Journal. (dpa/NAN)

After conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) for about seven hours and completing all the scheduled tasks, Chinese astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo returned safely to the Tianhe core module of China’s space station at 2:57 p.m. on July 4, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).

Crew members of the Shenzhou-12 spaceship worked in close coordination during the extravehicular operations, said CMSEO, declaring the first EVAs of Chinese astronauts during the construction of China’s space station, which were also the first EVAs of Chinese astronauts after the Shenzhou-7 manned spaceflight mission in 2008, a complete success.

Through close coordination between space and the ground, as well as between the Shenzhou-12 crew members inside and outside the spacecraft, all the preset tasks of the EVAs, including equipment installation and panoramic camera lifting, were successfully completed.

The EVAs verified for the first time the performance and function of China’s new-generation extravehicular mobility units, the coordination between the astronauts and the robotic arm, as well as the reliability and safety of related EVA supporting equipment, laying an important foundation for subsequent EVAs for the space station construction.

Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the robotic arm of the space station core module represents the most complicated and largest smart space mechanical system with the highest control precision among existing aerospace products of its kind.

It is designed mainly for eight major tasks in the in-orbit construction of the space station, such as transposition, EVAs of astronauts, extravehicular freight handling, extravehicular status check, and extravehicular maintenance of large equipment.

The robotic arm of the core module is 10.2 meters long when fully extended, and its maximum loading capacity is 25 tons.

It is also China’s first robotic arm that can function in orbit in the long term. With three shoulder joints, one elbow joint, and three wrist joints, the robotic arm has seven degrees of freedom of movement just like the human arm. The rotation of each joint enables it to grab things and conduct operations at any angles and positions around it, thus providing a strong guarantee for the smooth completion of astronauts’ EVAs.

The robotic arm represents one of the new fields in the development of China’s aerospace industry. Thanks to the efforts of its R&D team, China has become the third country in the world that has mastered and put into practice core technologies related to large-scale space robotic arm.

All the key components of the country’s space robotic arm are developed domestically. Besides, the country has formed multiple national standards for the space robotics industry.

Since entering the Tianhe core module on June 17, the three astronauts onboard the Shenzhou-12 spaceship have carried out work as planned and are in good condition. They will perform EVAs for another time during the subsequent orbital flight.

By Yu Jianbin, People’s Daily