Posted on: March 09, 2012
At the end of February, the SATSA [SBAS (Satellite based Augmentation system) Awareness and Training for South Africa] kick-off meeting was held at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Pretoria, South Africa. SATSA is a FP7 project from the EC to build capacity in satellite navigation in anticipation of the deployment of EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service ) in South Africa in the foreseeable future. This project is lead by the Spanish company GMV, with partners from Italy (Alpha Consult), the UK (NDConsult) and South Africa (SANSA). The project will offer four training sessions on basic to advanced SBAS concepts, and will also feature three training trials to evaluate SBAS applications using a test platform to produce realistic SBAS signals for the duration of the trials. The project is scheduled to run for a period of 18 months beginning with the first of four training sessions between March and November 2012 and the trials between February and April 2013. The trials will focus on vehicle logistics, agriculture and GIS ground truthing. ATNS and CAA also joined the initial meeting to discuss the training needs for the aviation community which will form part of the 3rd training session which is dedicated to the use of EGNOS in the aviation domain.
Left to right: Eugene Avenant (SANSA Space ops), Farhad Hassim (SANSA Space Ops), Boy Sindane CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), Rodney Subramany ATNS (Air Traffic Navigation Services), Leago Takalani (ATNS), Nina Costa, NDConsult (UK), Emiliano Spaltro, Alpha Consult (Italy) and Alberto Madrazo Fernandez, GMV (Spain)