Australia in space: No longer pie in the sky
THE CHALLENGE
This project was about launching Australia into space. We needed to find out which companies and universities wanted to get there, what they intended to do up there and what their barriers were in the process.
WHAT VM DID
We coordinated a tightly-curated 4-day sprint, bringing together experienced and talented people, technology platforms, engineers, academics, startups, students, and beneficiaries. We focused on the problems provided by key stakeholders, namely: mapping out the (approx) 80 companies in the ecosystem and interviewing them all, building out a framework for standards in hardware, software and compliance, put these into practice with a balloon launch from Merriwa.
WHAT WE ACHIEVED
- We involved more than 200 people, including engineers, academics, startups, students, and beneficiaries. - We established open source frameworks for software, hardware and compliance for cubesat startups- We prototyped and deployed the mission in just 50 hours. - The event had a strong impact on both national and international media and appeared on TV, newspapers, radio, social media and online news. - Daily Mail, Newcastle Herald, Ten Daily, Hunter Valley News and ABC evenings mentioned the event - gaining over 6.5 million views in 72 hrs. - All participants learnt invaluable lessons around rapid prototyping - We demonstrated the capabilities, technology and future of the Australian space ecosystem. Oh and we got a a world record for highest pie in the sky!
