Democratising the Signal: A Conceptual Beneficiation Model of Space Technology for Lesser Privileged Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa

The fast growing Space technology sector has much to offer terrestrial society both from a technological as well as an economic point of view. Application of cutting edge technology for commercial gain has seen the space industry become a powerful enabler of entirely new business concepts such as “ride-hailing services” which is primarily based on the ease of accessing accurate location information. In addition to the aforementioned commercial role, space technology has been deployed very effectively in benefiting the common good. One of the areas where space technology has already demonstrated its ability as an enabler of goodwill, is by acting as progress agent for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with many examples available. As is the case with any application of goodwill, the question can be asked if enough is being done, and in this case can more be done with what is already in existence? The purpose of this work was to propose a simple model to identify additional application opportunities for existing SDG supporting space applications, especially for the benefit of people in infrastructure-challenged areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa. The scope of the work was limited to the construction of a basic model using publically available data and not the actual mechanics of how it is to be achieved.