Nigeria Joins the Space Age 58
nuke-alwin writes "The Age is reporting that Nigeria has joined the space age by sending a satellite into space from Russia. The satellite will be used for environmental monitoring and to keep an eye on oil pipelines."
Confidential proposal (Score:5, Funny)
Crap. (Score:2)
uhmm... typo (Score:2, Funny)
Re:uhmm... typo (Score:2)
Re:uhmm... typo (Score:2, Interesting)
greetings!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:greetings!!!! (Score:1)
I am very offended by your post and I am quite sure Nigerians everywhere would be too. Quit being so stupid and insensitive to post
Use (Score:2)
It was (Score:2)
Re:It was (Score:2)
Or, alternatively, you could say that all the world has been living in the space age from the day when Soviet Union launched the Sputnik.
Re:It was (Score:2)
Re:It was (Score:2)
You have struck upon the cornerstone of modernism. The idea that one's civilisation is "modern" requires the discovery of less advanced civilisations. The "space age" is a classically modernist text offering and requiring unlimited progress away from the primitive cultures of the past.
Cue (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cue (Score:1)
Poor population head count: 132 million.
For a annual cost of 10 cent per head, I think it is worth the science they are going to get out of it, never mind the publicity and feel-good factor.
Woww.. Think about all the things you can get for an extra 10 cent. It will definitely save the poor's problem.
Re:Cue (Score:3, Insightful)
Many of Nigeria's social problems have roots in environmental problems. You can more effectively combat soil erosion, drought, deforestation, fires, etc. if you can see the big picture, in combination with other strategies.
Space faring nations use satellite technology all the time, imagine how hard it would have been to prepare for Hurricane Isabel if we couldn't track it using our satellites.
Also, there should be some more imediate economic payoff
Re:Cue (Score:2)
I mean honestly, woman were oppressed, beaten, raped, and killed, in this(and many other countries), yet you, sir, have the gull to joke about posters who think Nigeria should fix problems at home(oppression, murder, etc.) rather than put a damn satelite up in orbit...
*shakes head*
Muslims in space. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Muslims in space. (Score:2)
Go think for a bit, you obviously need some 'alone time' with what little of your mind is left after a childhood of South Park and GTA.
Re:Muslims in space. (Score:2)
Maybe he's a troll, and you've been hooked, lined, and sinkered.
Re:Muslims in space. (Score:2)
Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Amazing (Score:2)
And now, the rest of the story (Score:5, Informative)
The NigeriaSat-1 was produced by British-based company, Surrey Satellite Technology, with the help of Nigerian technicians trained in Britain, Olaniyi said.
The Russian Kosmos-3M rocket that lifted off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome with NigeriaSat-1 carried five other satellites with it - two from Russia, and one each from Turkey, Britain and South Korea.
A team of 15 Nigerian scientists and engineers will control their country's satellite from a ground station in Abuja during its five to seven year life-span, Olaniyi said.
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! (Score:2, Troll)
In soviet russia you spam former nigerian presidents...
Now beat this.
Re:WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! (Score:1)
In Soviet Nigeria, you scam the spammers!
Money laundering scam (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Money laundering scam (Score:1)
I AM NOT IMPRESSED (Score:4, Insightful)
A woman who committed adultery was spared death by stoning [google.com].
Yep, they were going to bury her up to her neck and have people throw rocks at her head until she was dead, because she had a baby out of wedlock.
And, get this one: the religous court decided that since children can take up to 5 years to develop in the womb (!!!) it was possible that she conceived the child with her husband, so on that ground they let her live.
So, nice with the satellite, but I just am not impressed. Not even one little bit.
Not stoned by satellite engineers (Score:1)
There are a lot of things wrong with the world, and we can't fix them all overnight. Putting a satellite over Nigeria will help fix a lot of current problems - incuding being able to spot oil spills caused by theives cracking a pipeline before the spilled oil gets far. If y
Re:I AM NOT IMPRESSED (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I AM NOT IMPRESSED (Score:2)
Of course here, in civilized West, noone does anything so barbaric. Everybody has a right to live, so we only make them wish they were dead.
Re:I AM NOT IMPRESSED - Ignorant.. (Score:1)
These laws were bought in democratically by the local government in nothern Nigeria. The people voted for these laws and now they have them.
Also, I assume you know nothing about Shariah law, because it requires that there are 4 witnesses to the deed that the defendent has been accused of. This was the virdict handed down:
In an hour-long hearing, the panel said Lawal was not caught in the act of adultery and wasn't given enough time to understand the charges against her.
It also cited procedural erro
Re:I AM NOT IMPRESSED - Ignorant.. (Score:1)
I'm an atheist, and all religious law is barbaric. That anyone would democratically vote for religion to control the law is ignorant.
I don't believe in your god, nor his laws. Valid for all values of 'your'.
By "Nigerian" they mean... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm just wondering, when designing a satellite has been done by a group of college students, when there are university courses that you can take and more or less come out knowing how to make a basic satellite... how impressive is this, really? I'm sure that there are Nigerians (either people born Nigerian that immigrated or Nigerian citizens who were wealthy and just managed to get a degree and a job) who've worked on space/satellite projects before... how important is it really whose flag they paint on the thing?
I think the real focus is on what benefits this could have for Nigerian citizens - the article mentions the possibilty of agricultural benefits (gathering information on climate/sources of water/land use? soil data?), as well as monitoring the oil pipeline - I don't know how effective this will be, but if it can save oil revenue and get it into the government, then this might have some solid benefits (Yes, I know that a lot of the $$ made never sees the starving masses, but, if it works as a percentage... any improvement is welcome). My only concern, then, is that there are other satellites already aloft that could have done the same thing - and Nigerian nationalism could have been fed just by constructing a ground station where the data would be downloaded (having more ground stations would help the satellite's primay user, as well) and evaluated - using Nigerian scientists and maybe even with Nigerian software.
Just my $0.02 (Enough in Nigeria to buy a decent meal -- think about it.)
Tim
Re:By "Nigerian" they mean... (Score:4, Insightful)
Having been taught finite element analysis by a Nigerian I cannot take the usual patronising attitude to that country. Taking the attitude of the post above you could say there are a lot of Nigerian trained Australian and British engineers out there. Universities are mostly multicultural places - live with the idea or your job may go to India.
Re:By "Nigerian" they mean... (Chevron?) (Score:2)
In a very real way, both of these problems are indicative but not proof of injustice by the oil companies. [This includes Chevron [bizjournals.com], one of Rockefeller's Standard Oil companies, but I'm not sure that Chevron is all it is.]
Point being, if Nigeria has had a huge poverty problem before, they'll likely have it
Nigeria better launch site than Plesetsk? (Score:4, Interesting)
Nigeria's pretty close to the equator, innit? Maybe they could talk the Russians into building a launch site there for their shared use? Russia would benefit from the higher rotational velocity, and Nigeria would probably benefit in a number of more mundane ways (jobs, economic development, etc.)
Re:Nigeria better launch site than Plesetsk? (Score:2)
Technically Nigeria is better, but politically Plesetsk. Control of launcher and space technology
Great... spam in space... (Score:2)
Just what we need. :)
Q.
come on guys, give them a break... (Score:5, Insightful)
Some have mentioned the harsh Muslim laws which has touched one poor woman's life in a very public way. They seem to have forgotten that we have a pair of ultra right Christian fanatics who initially said Americans suffered 9/11 because abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the ACLU and others have upset God. And the priest who was convicted of murderings someone for performing abortions - didn't he publicly declare that he believes he will be welcomed in heaven for what he did?
I can not condone the advanced fee fraud Nigeria is famous for, but if you are dumb enough to fall for it, maybe you deserved to learn the lesson the hard way. Perhaps us stock-market-speculating Americans have forgotten that money could be gotten the old fashion way - by earning it with honest work?
Some point out that the endeavor is more British and Russian than Nigerian. But that is missing the point. I mean, what do you expect baby steps to be like anyway? John Glen didn't got to space overnight. He rode the coat tail of German rocket researchers who came to work for uncle sam after WWII, and the Germans had built upon the work of our own Robert Goddard. Can you imagine how few engineers there would be today if in their younger days, there was not the generosity or charity to provide them with that old crystal radio set or that clunky-but-still-functioning computer? It isn't wrong to ask or recieve help. You have to start somewhere right?
Let us not forget that our own space program was priceless in stimulating so many good things. Aside from the obvious utilitarian benifits that the satellite offers by performing it's duties, it also gives the citizens something to look up to. (no pun intended) Maybe there will be a few less scammers as young Nigerians realize there are higher goals worth pursuing. Just to show that I'm not completely without humor, I for one welcome our new space-faring colleagues.
Re:come on guys, give them a break... (Score:2)
Sure you're humorous.
You took a common slashdot joke and reworded it to fit the current story. Badly. As a matter of fact you mangled it so badly that all humorous aspects have been completely beaten out of it, as surely as if you had a Humorless Staff +3 of Beating in your right hand and a Ring of Silent Laughter on your left.
Speaking of things you mangled in that post, how about the truth?
I can no
Re:come on guys, give them a break... (Score:1)
Maybe there will be a few less scammers as young Nigerians realize there are higher goals worth pursuing
that was the joke.
Just to show that I'm not completely without humor, I for one welcome our new space-faring colleagues.
But that is beside the point. Let me ask you instead: how have *you* contributed to the discussion.