Paper short abstract:

The concepts 'signal' and 'noise' lend to the analysis of scientific practice in-situ - as well as the connections and disruptions of Space Science and Technology infrastructure in Ghana - offering insights into how social and natural scientists make their objects of research visible.

Paper long abstract:

Sitting under an Alt Azimuth Telescope on the outskirts of Accra, an astrophysicist explains: "If we were to point the telescope toward the ground, the weight of the dish would crush the building". Hard limits in the control computer prevent the telescope from moving below an elevation of five degrees. The closer the dish points to the ground, the more it threatens the people standing under it. Putting the laws of physics aside for a moment begs the question: what would the dish 'see' if it were pointed in the opposite direction? Toward us rather than the sky?

In September 2017, Ghana became the second African country to participate in a network of telescopes belonging to the 'Square Kilometer Array' (SKA), anchored in South Africa and announced as the "largest scientific project in Africa". This initiative coincide with the African Union's Space Program, which focuses on space science and technology for socioeconomic development. In this context, the radio astronomy infrastructure anchors the training of young scientists to monitor stars and planets, as well as provide technical capacity to monitor the earth and people through Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Infrastructures shape - and are shaped by - people. In this paper, I am interested in how the 'signal' and the 'noise' - as concepts used in radio astronomy - lend to framing the connections and the disruptions of space science and technology for socioeconomic development, and the capacity through which scientists use this infrastructure to sense, measure, translate and build-up their worlds.