New Zealand space science - a trajectory to success - Project Auckland

Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins KC at the Space Institute at the University of Auckland with Mission Operations Control Centre director Chris Jackson (centre) and deputy vice-chancellor research Professor Frank Bloomfield.

OPINION

In our modern, globally connected world we use space technology every day – often without a second thought. When we shop or bank online, search for directions on our phones or check the weather forecast, we’re using satellite data.

As a country, space technology also advances our national security and economic interests.

Images from satellites help us track illegal fishing, while GPS supports our supply chains and ability to perform search and rescue operations. Space-based assets enable the core functions of the New Zealand Defence Force and help us respond to wider regional challenges such as military operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Right here in New Zealand, our space sector employs more than 5000 people to manufacture parts, observe the Earth, test vehicles, monitor space debris and launch rockets. In fact, we had the fourth highest number of rocket launches in the world last year – albeit some way behind the first three but fourth is nothing to be sniffed at.

Our remoteness makes us a perfect spot for space activity; our small population compared with our land mass means we have vast, clear skies, and our lack of immediate neighbours means that in the unlikely event something goes wrong, a rocket would land in the sea instead of in another country.

A Rocket Lab launch from the Mahia Peninsula. Photo / Rocket Lab

Since becoming New Zealand’s first dedicated Minister for Space, my appreciation for the breadth of space-related innovation and the potential of our domestic space industry to help build our economy and global reputation has — dare I say it — skyrocketed.

Though I have long been interested in and connected to our aerospace community, I am continually in awe of the diversity and volume of activity under way.

Many people will be familiar with Rocket Lab’s private launch facility on Mahia Peninsula, which makes us one of only 11 countries launching satellites into space. But it is in Mt Wellington, Auckland that the bulk of Rocket Lab’s 700 or so New Zealand staff are based. From here the team design and build satellites and rockets and test them for the stress of launch and the hostile conditions of space.

While arguably our most visible, Rocket Lab is far from New Zealand’s only space success story. There are numerous start-ups and established space players just in Auckland alone.

In fact, also in Mt Wellington you’ll find Rakon, whose oscillators are used in satellites and ground stations and are frequent fliers to Mars. They’ve travelled to the red planet with the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Mission, Nasa’s Perseverance rover and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission.

In Rosedale, Quantifi Photonics is delivering test and measurement solutions for space and aerospace.

And in Parnell, Astrix Astronautics, which had its origins in a University of Auckland competition, has already tested a concept for inflatable solar arrays that unfurl in orbit to power satellites with stellar results.

Last year I also had the pleasure of visiting Zenno Astronautics in Parnell whose super-conducting magnet technology is changing the game for positioning satellites in orbit.

Zenno’s ground-breaking tech enables satellites to be precisely repositioned in space without the need for expensive fossil fuel from Earth. It’s sustainable, better for the bottom line and exactly the kind of Kiwi innovation I intend to promote internationally.

The Rakon factory based in Mt Wellington. Photo / Dean Purcell

These companies are impressive, but what’s most exciting is that they’re just one slice of New Zealand’s dynamic space sector. It’s a sector that was estimated to be worth more than $1.7 billion in 2019 and it is expected to have developed even more since.

New Zealand’s space sector has huge potential when it comes to rebuilding our economy. Encouraging our young people to aim high and realise the potential of science, technology, engineering and maths is essential in helping us maintain the momentum and foster home-grown talent needed for our space sector to thrive.

One noteworthy training ground is the University of Auckland’s Space Institute — Te Pūnaha Ātea.

It has become a multidisciplinary hub of expertise in space science and engineering, with strong links to industry, and provides a credible injection of space talent into the domestic and international space sector in addition to a national testing facility that prepares satellites for the rigours of orbit.

The value of this institute is further enhanced by the recent addition of a mission operations control centre, which the Government invested in as part of New Zealand’s contribution to the MethaneSAT space mission — a collaboration with the US-based Environmental Defence Fund and scientists at Niwa and Harvard University.

This piece of national infrastructure will give our students first-hand experience of operating a satellite in orbit, strengthen our domestic capability to operate complex space missions and set us up to participate in other missions, while our world-leading scientists use the data to tackle some of the toughest global challenges.

With well-designed regulation and policy that keeps pace with innovation and advantages that include our geography, infrastructure and global trust, I am highly ambitious for what we can achieve.

And if Auckland is anything to go by, we’re on a trajectory to success.