Captain Claire Muhungi: Illustrious Career Of KSA Engineer At The Center Of Kenya’s First Earth Observation Satellite

Kenya Space Agency (KSA) recently announced the launch of Taifa-1, Kenya’s first earth observation satellite.

The satellite that was designed and developed by nine Kenyan engineers including Captain Claire Muhungi who is responsible for analysing data relayed by the satellite.

She is also at the center of the space program undertaken by KSA and the brainchild of the first of it’s kind satellite.

Here is her story as told by WoK.

After completion of her secondary school education, Muhungi progressed to the Technical University of Kenya (TUK).

She pursued a bachelor’s degree in Geospatial Engineering specialising in GIS and Remote Sensing.

Muhungi works as an geospatial engineer at KSA, a position she has held for eight years.

A geospatial engineer is a professional who applies engineering principles and techniques to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of geospatial data.

Geospatial data is information related to the earth’s surface, such as topography, land use, natural resources, and environmental conditions.

They use advanced technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and GPS, to collect, store, analyze and visualize geographic data.

At KSA, Muhungi also works as the Deputy Director of the Earth Observation and Geo-Information Department. 

Prior to her current positions, she worked as a Geographic Information System (GIS) data mapping and entry officer.

She also worked as a GIS technician and specialist.

Elsewhere, she has published peer-reviewed academic articles including Africa Regional Data Cube Use – A Case of Kenya and Effects of Land Fragmentation on Land Use and Food Security in Kenya. 

Taifa-1 satellite

Taifa-1, a 3U Earth Observation satellite was designed and developed at a tune of Ksh 50 million.

It took the engineers two years to develop the satellite.

According to Rose Wanjiku, the project lead, the satellite will only operate for five years.

“For the satellite to stay in orbit, it has to go at a certain speed. Over time, the batteries are not as powerful because of use and reuse and the satellite starts to slow down

“As soon as it slows down, it starts to loose the altitude of the orbit and so because as it decays it enters into the atmosphere of earth, there’s a lot of friction with the air particles that causes it to burn up,” Wanjiku explained.

The mission of the spacecraft will be to provide data in the areas of agriculture, food security and disaster management.

The satellite will be used to predict drought-related disasters and thus speeding up the response of emergency programs.