Dr. Temidayo Oniosun is a space scientist, entrepreneur and founder of Space in Africa, the leading market intelligence company in the African space and satellite industry.
The research affiliate at MIT Media Lab and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council became a trending topic this week when he decided to send melon seeds, popularly known in Nigeria as Egusi, to space.
Recently, Dr. Oniosun has been talking a lot about Food for Space. When The Guardian reached out to him, he briefly explained the concept, which includes sending Egusi to space.
“When we send people to outer space, sometimes they stay for months, and they have to eat throughout this period. Hence, agriculture and food security are critical for outer space exploration,” he told our correspondent.
Oniosun’s achievements in space have filled Nigerians with pride, as they see his efforts as elevating the country to a higher standing on the global stage.
“I am very proud of this, not just as a Yoruba man but as a Nigerian. Egusi holds cultural significance in Yoruba land and the Nigerian community locally and in the diaspora, and it is good that we are able to experiment with it in a way that can preserve it for survival in outer space,” he said.
The graduate of the Department of Meteorology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), has been very active in the space industry long before his mission to preserve food in space. However, Nigerians have yet to see all that the future holds concerning his efforts.
He said, “I have been directly and indirectly involved in most of the development we have seen in the African space industry over the last decade. Just in April, I hosted the launch of the African Space Agency in Cairo- an agency on which my company worked on the baseline studies that also led to its establishment and operationalisation. I will continue to do work that promotes Nigeria and Africa in the global space context. We will send more Nigerian seeds to space as we have now signed a partnership agreement that will ensure this.”
Oniosun dismissed speculation that his research work has anything to do with transforming melon seeds into a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO).
“Not at all. When the seeds come back, we will be performing experiments on them at the University of Florida and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Oyo State. Research findings will be published in reputable journals once we have completed our work, and we hope that Egusi will perform well in microgravity. This has nothing to do with GMO,” he allayed fears.
When asked if that young man at FUTA ever thought his work would make it to space, he said, “Absolutely. While at FUTA, I established and ran the University Space Club, and we did some exciting projects, including an Asteroid search campaign. FUTA provided a lot of support that made pursuing a career in the industry achievable.”
Oniosun holds a bachelor’s degree in Meteorology from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, a master’s degree in Satellite Applications from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and a PhD from the University of Delaware. When his seeds return from space, the world will be eager to see them, especially the meal they will transform into.
