‘Misyon Payanke’   Seychelles enjoys success of balloon satellite project   • Launches second phase   By Patsy Canaya   |26 July 2022

The launch of the balloon satellite in April this year

Seychellois students who took part in the balloon satellite launch in April this year, dubbed ‘Misyon Payanke’, have been recognised by the World Record Union for attaining a record for the First High Altitude Balloon launch on the African continent.

The atmospheric balloon satellite launched by Vice-President Ahmed Afif on April 28, 2022 at Stad Popiler in Victoria, reached an altitude of 73,000 feet, before it fell back to earth, where information such as air quality, humidity and radiation levels among others were retrieved by the students.

The launch was a first for Seychelles and was part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) programme launched in schools in recent years, to get more students involved in science and technology.

It was done in collaboration between the department of Science and Technology, Space Kidz India, SKI – an aerospace organisation for young scientists and funded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

The 30 students who designed the balloon satellite were presented with their certificates at a ceremony at the SITE Auditorium recently where a certificate of achievement was also presented to the Science, Technology, and Innovation Division (DSTI) in the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry.

Speaking at the ceremony, the secretary general of the Seychelles National Commission for Unesco, Vicky Michel-Gendron, thanked the director general for Science, Technology and Innovation Department, Xavier Estico, and his team for realising the project and attaining world record for high altitude balloon launch on the continent.

“Who would have imagined that Seychelles being a small island developing state could achieve such a feat? This shows that there is nothing impossible for those who believe in their dreams and put in the required effort to make that dream come true,” said Mrs Michel-Gendron.

For his part, Mr Estico commended the ‘Misyon Payanke’ for their great achievement saying this has put Seychelles in the limelight, regionally and internationally.

“These milestones are a result of what we anticipated when we launched the policy for science, technology, and innovation, because we saw a decline in students’ performance in these areas. We thought the best way to boost enthusiasm for space technology was to get them involved so instead of doing only theoretical work they could build their own robots, launch a drone, learn coding among others and this achievement shows that our students are talented,” said Mr Estico.

One of the students who took part in ‘Misyon Payanke’, is Navin Volcère from Mont Fleuri secondary, who has an interest in robotics and aspires to study in the field of mechanical engineering.

“Being part of the project was a huge step for me and my career and a great opportunity for us young Seychellois. I do hope we get other opportunities in the future as it was very educational, and of course being first in Africa was a great achievement,” he said.

Last week’s ceremony also saw the launch of the second phase of the satellite programme, which Mr Estico said involves mostly programming. Each student was presented with a kit containing a keyboard and other programming material, which will allow them to connect to any electronic device.

Mr Estico said this will kickstart the next step in their programme and long-time dream. They are presently following training online from various international organisations, including National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA and various universities.

“There is a lot of coding in satellite technology, and this will allow students to develop their programming skills. Ultimately, we believe we can launch a satellite, built entirely by Seychellois-hands technology that will stay in orbit for a long time. This will be quite a milestone and I believe we are moving in the right direction,” added Mr Estico.

Mr Estico added that Seychelles’ recent feat has generated interest from other countries, especially from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

He said Seychelles would soon hold bilateral talks with South Africa, which has a programme called Square Kilometre Array (SKA) to see where they can collaborate. SKA is an intergovernmental radio telescope project expected to be built in Australia and South Africa.