Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) · 2018-08-23 · ACSER Annual Report 2017...

Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER)2017 ANNUAL REPORT

Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER)

2017 ANNUAL REPORT

ACSER Annual Report 2017 1

ContentsDirector’s Report 2

About ACSER 3

Supporters 5

Our Research 6Biarri 7QB50 8Reconfigurable Systems for Space (RUSH) 11GNSS Interference Detection and Localisation 12BALSAR – A High-Altitude Balloon-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar 12

Our Events 13Cubesat Innovation Workshop 2017 15Sydney Space Festival 16Off-Earth Mining Forum 19Off-Earth Mining Forum Program 20ACSER Seminar Series 21

YEAR IN REVIEW: Other Highlights 2217th ASRC, University of Sydney 22Visit to Gilmour Space in Singapore 22Optus Groundstation Visit 22Faculty of Engineering Staff Awards 23Sydney Science Festival 23UNSW Open Day 2368th Annual IAC, Adelaide, Australia 24

Media & Publicity 25

Our Students 27Undergraduate Education 28

BLUEsat 28Honours Supervision 30International Postgraduate Practicums 30Postgraduate Coursework Thesis Supervision 30

Postgraduate Coursework 31Master of Engineering Science (Satellite Systems Engineering) 31

Higher Degree Research 32Postgraduate Research Students 32

Our People 33Academic Staff 34Core Research Team 34

2017 Industry Partners and Collaborators 40

Governance 41Centre Grant Funding 44

Financial Report 45

Publications 46

© Australian Centre for Space Engineering ResearchUNSW Sydney NSW 2052AUSTRALIA

Director: Professor Andrew Dempster

T: +61 (2) 9385 6890E: [email protected]

ACSER.UNSW

@ACSERUNSW

ACSER UNSWf

Cover photo: artists impression of the UNSW-EC0 cubesat being deployed from the International Space Station Contents

ACSER Annual Report 2017 3ACSER Annual Report 20172

Director’s Report

This is the seventh Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) annual report, covering our seventh full calendar year of operation, 2017. In so many ways, 2017 was a spectacular year for ACSER, with significant success across the full range of our activities.

The year began with us awaiting the launch of our two QB50 satellites, UNSW-EC0 and INSIPRE 2, as well as the first Biarri cubesat carrying our Namuru GPS receiver. The year ended with all three in orbit and operating, in addition to a further Kea GPS receiver in orbit on the Buccaneer cubesat.

The launch of our QB50 and Biarri cubesats to the International Space Station coincided with the Second Cubesat (Launching Cubesats for and from Australia) Workshop, which showcased the extremely rapid progress Australia is making in this field.

Our three ongoing ARC-funded projects, Linkage “Protecting Critical Transport Infrastructure using Hybrid Approaches for Interference and Spoofer Detection and Localisation”, Linkage “Rapid Recovery from Radiation-induced Errors in Reconfigurable Hardware” and Discovery “Designing Radiation-Tolerant Reconfigurable Systems for Space”, all made good progress.

Significant new funding was earned via the ARC Training Centre for Cubesats, UAVs and their Applications, and Defence Materials and Technology Centre (DMTC) support for “UAV Reflectometry”.

The third Off-Earth Mining Forum again attracted high-quality speakers, and was a high-profile lead-in event for the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide. Off-Earth Mining continued to attract strong PhD candidates and the research goes from strength to strength.

We remain for the moment in the Material Science building and expect the lab to be ready for us again in 2018, with us returning to our own offices in EET in 2019.

Prof Dempster (second from left) attending the Kenneth Finlay Lecture in Leighton Hall, with A/Prof Serkan Saydam (far-left) and

guest speaker for the evening Rob Mueller from NASA Kennedy Space Centre (middle)

About ACSER

The Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) was launched at the University of New South Wales on the 22 November 2010 by former astronaut Dr. Jan Davis. The centre aims to establish UNSW as a significant player in increasing Australia’s capabilities in space.

The centre draws on the huge expertise of Australia’s largest Engineering faculty. ACSER resides in the School of Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at UNSW and interacts with most of the Schools in that Faculty: Mining Engineering, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering as well as the Engineering and Information Technology School of UNSW Canberra. Collaborations have been developed with the Faculties of Science, Business, Law, and Arts and Social Sciences. Future opportunities are being examined with Chemical Engineering.

Current projects include the QB50 cubesat program, where 50 cubesats are being developed around the world for ionospheric monitoring and also to carry payloads for the individual satellite developers. The Biarri project will carry ACSER GPS receivers on its cubesat constellation led by the US Air Force Research Laboratory. The Masters in Satellite Systems Engineering continues to deliver training for engineers in this filed.

ACSER regularly organises workshops and seminars on a range of space-related topics of interest to the wider space community.

ACSER Objectives

To provide national leadership for Australian space engineering research.

Vision

To develop space capabilities relevant to Australia’s needs through research, innovation and

education.

Purpose

Professor Andrew DempsterDirector, Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research


Supporters

In 2017 we again received a donation from long-time supporters the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA), in relation to our ongoing relationship with them in collaborating on the annual Australian Space Research Conference.

Other donations in 2017 were dominated by early sponsorships for the 2018 International Global Navigation Satellite Systems conference (run in February 2018) and support from the Sydney Aerospace & Defence Interest Group (part of Regional Development Australia) who supported our “Meet the Sydney Space Industry” Night in September. We are grateful to the Office of the Chief Scientist, from whom we received funding for both OEMF2017 and IGNSS2018 during 2017.

Without the ongoing support of these organisations we could not continue to bring researchers together to present and discuss ideas at the cutting edge of space technologies, nor could we offer outreach events to school groups and the wider community. We offer great thanks to these companies and organisations for their faith in what we do.

Internally we would also like to thank the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, the School of Mining Engineering, the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and the Faculty of Engineering who have assisted ACSER and the BLUEsat team both financially and with in-kind support throughout the year.

NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY O F AU S T R A L I A LT D

ACSER Strategy

Our Vision

Engage theCommunity

Ensure MarketSuitability

Resources

Pursue Excellence &Innovation

Educate

Our Purpose

Capabilities

To provide national leadership for Australian space engineering research.

To foster collaborations between researchers, industry and government and to nurture links between our national and international

partners to achieve Australia’s space ambitions.

To develop space capabilities relevant to Australia’s needs through research,

innovation and education.

In pursuing the vision, ACSER upholds the principles underpinning its foundation.

Promote collaborations

between ACSER, groups

with space capabilities

and the Australian market

for space services,

technologies and

expertise.

Pursue programs and

activities that fit the

needs, expectations and

constraints of the

domestic and international

space markets.

Develop a funding and operational model that guarantees ACSER’s long-term viability.

Create and transfer new

knowledge in space

capabilities, technologies

and applications

Raise Australian

awareness of issues and

developments in space,

and educate a new

generation of space

professionals.

Advance Australia’s space aspirations

Enhance the reputation of UNSW

Promote collaboration between the schools, faculties

and campuses of UNSW

Enable access to facilities for ACSER collaborators.

Strengthen the ACSER expertise base through strategic recruitment and post-graduate education.

ACSER Strategy


OurResearch

Biarri Point, with the UNSW developed Namuru V32R3A Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver as a payload, was deployed from the International Space Station in May 2017. The CubeSat mission was developed to undertake research into Space Situational Awareness. This will be done by precisely monitoring the spacecraft position and velocity using GPS and satellite laser ranging in order to better understand the drag and left forces being experienced. Validation of technologies to be employed in future missions has also been undertaken.

The Namuru GPS was powered up in early June 2017 and was fully operational after several weeks of commissioning. This makes the Namuru V32R3A GPS receiver the very first fully Australian and New Zealand designed GPS receiver to successfully navigate in orbit.

The Namuru receiver was fully designed, developed and tested by UNSW Sydney staff and students working for the School of Surveying and Spatial Engineering (SAGE) (since merged into the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER), which is associated with the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications (EET). The receiver hardware was designed and manufactured by New Zealand based General Dynamics Corporation, while the receiver firmware and field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) designs were done in Australia by UNSW Sydney.

The successful operation of the Namuru receiver has

been instrumental to the success of the Biarri mission as it provided the only source of GPS navigation to the satellite. In addition to providing position, navigation and timing signals at regular times throughout the mission, the receiver has also been used to perform various experiments. These include validation of the disciplined timing signals generated by the receiver, as well as the collection of raw IF data for ground based post-processing.

With the success of Biarri Point, ACSER look forward to continuing to work with Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group on follow-up missions. ACSER has provided on-going support to DST Group under an existing support contract.

Biarri

Below Artist’s impression of the SHARC (Satellite for High Accuracy Radar Calibration)

Namuru V3.2A GPS Receiver Board

YEAR IN REVIEW: Projects


storage and direct downlink.

In 2017, there were more than 20 active UNSW, volunteer and Data61 personnel working on the project. Over the project lifetime, there has been over $300,000 of cash committed to the project, leveraging a further $464,000 of in-kind contribution through labour and technology development.

Opposite page: Top right - Amateur radio team at Dwingeloo, Netherlands

Lower right - UNSW satellite team in front of the groundstation

Above: (clockwise from top) Images from ISS live video feed of UNSW-EC0 being ejected from the Nanoracks launcher; the Cygnus capsule carrying the QB50 payload to the ISS (NASA); Atlas V rocket carrying the UNSW-EC0 payload to

space; artists impressin of UNSW-EC0 in space; UNSW-EC0 packaged for shipping to Natherlads for final integration

QB50QB50 is a network of 36 CubeSats that was launched in Q2 of 2017 into a ‘string-of-pearls’ configuration. The orbit has a low initial altitude (400km) allowing direct sampling of the thermosphere. The CubeSat constellation will comprise a mix of atmospheric 2 unit (2U) CubeSats and 2U or 3U CubeSats for science and technology demonstration.

There were three Australian CubeSats developed to participate in this project, with UNSW providing one, ‘UNSW EC0’, as well as providing significant support to a second iNSPIRE-2. UNSW EC0 is a 2U CubeSat that will host a ion/neutral mass spectrometer provide by MSSL as well as incorporating three additional payload boards: A new space GPS board (KEA) developed at UNSW; a systems computer board (sel4Bit) running sel4, a robust microkernel operating system developed by NICTA; and a robust FPGA based systems computer board (RUSH). These payloads will allow the investigation of two GPS based remote sensing techniques, radio occultation and GPS reflectometry, as well as demonstration of a variety of error correcting and fault tolerant algorithms on the systems computer boards. In addition to these payloads, UNSW EC0 also incorporates one of the first thermoplastic 3D printed satellite structures (RAMSES) to be flown in space.

During 2015 the UNSW QB50 project completed the Assembly, Integration and Testing Review. The cubesat design progressed, with key developments in: algorithm developed for detumbling, pointing and tracking; operational code written and deployed to the flight controller board; and integration of the major subsystems into a flight configuration. The payload teams have completed development of the engineering and flight boards ready for integration. Several versions of the flight structure, RAMSES, have been produced, with the manufacturing process finalised. The first stack integration and full functional testing was completed, and the client payload, INMS (inertial neutral mass spectrometer), was tested in both software and hardware.

In 2016 ACSER’s engagement in QB50 underwent a rapid phase of development and testing, resulting in a fully developed Cubesat – UNSW-EC0. In an unexpected turn of events, a cousin was also manufactured a cousin, INSPIRE2 which became a collaborative Cubesat between UNSW, USyd and ANU. By the end of Q2 2016, both cubesats passed a harsh regime of vibration tests, thermal vacuum test and functional tests of all of its scientific instruments, including the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) on the UNSW-EC0 and the multi Needle langmuir Probe (mNLP) on INSPIRE2. Tests were conducted at the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (AITC) in Canberra. Both Cubesats were successfully integrated into a Nanoracks Deployer Cartridge at the end of Q3 2016 at the Innovative Solutions in Space facilities in Delft, Netherlands.

The months following the integration of the CubeSats into the Nanoracks deployer were spent finalising development and testing of the ground station and successful reception of transmissions from the International Space Station(ISS) and GOMX-1 were among the early highlights. After multiple delays, the launch of the CubeSats to the ISS coincided with the CubeSat workshop held on campus on the 19th of April 2016.

Just one week later on the 26th of April, the CubeSats were deployed from the ISS and the team gathered in the ground station to watch the live feed where UNSW-EC0 was observed to have a significant tumble immediately after exiting the deployer as it was the 3rd CubeSat in the pod. The team waited in the ground station to make contact as the next orbit would bring the CubeSats directly over Sydney. However, the team was unable to observe a beacon from either UNSW-EC0 or INSPIRE-2 and there were no signs of a response to an uplinked command.

After many days of continued attempts to establish communications the team had developed a hypothesis that the CubeSats were stuck in a particular state which would result in the antennas to not deploy. The team then developed a new set of commands that would remedy the situation. However, as the antennas on the CubeSats were stored the communications link was too weak for the commands to be received. So the team recorded the commands and asked the amateur radio community to broadcast them to the satellites when they were passing overhead. Many amateur radio operators answered the call, but it wasn’t until PI9CAM and the 25m dish he had access to that the commands were successfully uplinked and on the following pass both CubeSats were observed to have deployed and beacons were received.

Since communications has been established, UNSW-EC0 operations have included initial ADCS testing and detumbling confirmation. Additionally, photos have been downlinked to confirm the operation of the Earth facing camera for pointing. Preliminary experiments have been carried out with KEA and the EAUX board has been validated, including its use as the primary sensor for detumbling and redundant file system for data and photo


Off-Earth Mining Activities A/Prof Saydam was involved in a project at JPL to establish and lead a team at UNSW to develop an optimisation model for water extraction on Mars for establishing a colony. As a team, they have developed a software, called Water Extraction Mars Mining Model (WEM3), which has currently been used by the team at JPL. WEM3 is publicly available and can be accessed from www.engineering.unsw.edu.au/mining-engineering/wem3.

A/Prof Saydam was also part of a project which funded by Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) – Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) competitive grant scheme from the U.S. Government collaborating with Virginia Tech, Ascentech Enterprises and KSC (completed in 15th June 2017). One of the STTR Phase 1 project outcomes was developing a mining and processing optimisation model, called Mars Mining Operation Optimiser (M2O2).

A/Prof Saydam has been invited by the UQ and QUT to write a book chapter as part of the book of Extracting Innovations: Mining, Energy, and Technological Change in the Digital Age and also recorded for a MOOC-open access online course by Univ. of Queensland’s The Future of Mining course in the area of Off-Earth Mining. In addition, he was also invited to be the Editor-In-Chief for the Mines of The Future Project by the General Secretary of the Society of Mining Professors (SOMP), and has been leading the Editorial Board which includes well-known professors from the US, Peru, South Africa, Canada, Germany and Australia. The outcomes of the project were disseminated at the 28th Annual Meeting in Italy in 3rd July 2017.

PhD student Michael Dello-Iacovo from the School of Mining went on exchange to JPL for several months to continue his research into asteroid exploration, mining and impact risk, under our existing agreement with NASA. Another student UNSW student will replace him in 2018.

In 2017 there were 7 students undertaking PhDs in this area: 2 under

Mechanical Engineering, 1 under Electrical Engineering and 4 in Mining

Engineering.

A/Prof Serkan Saydam (left) visiting NASA JPL in February 2017, with UNSW sudent Carlos Tapia-Cortez

The processing speed, cost and flexibility requirements of future satellite-based applications cannot be satisfied with conventional radiation-hardened processors or custom integrated circuits. SRAM-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide an opportunity for meeting these requirements with off-the-shelf hardware. The main challenge of using FPGAs for space applications is mitigating the effects of radiation-induced Single Event Upsets (SEUs).

The aim of the two projects supported in part by the Australian Research Council’s Linkage (LP140100328) and Discovery (DP150103866) Projects funding schemes is to develop key technology to enable off-the shelf hardware to be customized for this use without compromising reliability. The projects will develop the design methods needed to implement a given set of satellite applications on a processing platform composed of application-specific soft processors and accelerator circuits hosted on conventional reconfigurable logic devices. Crucially, the solution architecture will be sufficiently hardened against radiation-induced errors to meet reliability targets while satisfying performance and energy use constraints.

Over the past year, research has progressed in three areas. The team has investigated and developed partitioning methods to improve the reliability and layout techniques to minimize common mode errors and facilitate dynamic modular reconfiguration of Register-Transfer Level TMR circuits generated using our High-Level Synthesis framework, which is based on the open-source LegUp tool. A second area of investigation has focused on the possibility of statically scheduling FPGA configuration memory error checking in order to boost reliability and reduce the energy consumed protecting user circuits. A third thrust has involved exploring efficacious architectural approaches to hardening our ASIP-inspired Programmable Configuration Controller (PCC). The results of these investigations were presented at the International Symposium for Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM’17), the International Symposium for Defect and Fault Tolerance (DFT’17) and the International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL’17). Further results will be presented in the upcoming FCCM’18 conference and in the accepted journal articles for publication in ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems (TRETS), IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (TAES) and Microprocessors and Microsystems (MICPRO). Our PhD student Nguyen Tran Huu Nguyen completed his studies.

Our RUSH QB50 payload hosted on the UNSW-EC0 CubeSat was deployed from the International Space Station on 26 May 2017 and the team is eagerly waiting for the RUSH payload to be turned on. Further missions based on the RUSH design are planned for 2018 and beyond.

A second-generation RUSH design that integrates the techniques the team has developed over the previous three years is currently under development. This design is expected to be deployed in the forthcoming Brazilian FLORIPASAT mission in 2018.

Further work is expected to result in the development of an integrated CAD flow that will allow TMR applications to be produced from high-level C or VHDL descriptions together with the PCC infrastructure and scheduling programs to check and recover from configuration memory errors automatically within specified reliability and/or power limits.

Reconfigurable Systems for Space (RUSH)

The RUSH board deployed on board the UNSW-EC0 Satellite


GPS has become ubiquitous in daily life, to an extent that the position, and often more importantly, the time delivered by GPS has become embedded in an increasing number of critical systems. However, given their low received power levels, GPS signals are very susceptible to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from either intentional or unintentional sources. In addition to RFI, Spoofing attacks, where fake GPS signals are broadcast to trick the operation of a GNSS receiver, present a serious threat to GNSS reliability and security. This vulnerability is aggravated as satellite navigation becomes more central to the operation of airports, ports railways, and communications systems.

The past year saw the development of the product, GRIFFIN2000™, which is a follow-on development from GRIFFIN1000™, capable of geo-locating different types of interferences and spoofers in two simultaneous frequency bands. It can further accommodate multiple GNSS constellations.

Following from the Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) work from previous years with our industrial partner GPSat Systems. Field trial data produced from this work are being used towards the research work on the follow-on ARC linkage project.

Various new Geolocalisation and detection algorithms are developed and validated using this dataset. These algorithms consist of joint Angle of Arrival (AOA) and Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) based geo-localisation, and Direct Position Determination. The former is a method to enhance geo-localisation accuracy using readily available measurements that are produced by GRIFFIN™ products. The latter focusses on wideband interferers and spoofers that operates in the signal processing level, which can significantly improve its noise sensitivity and geo-localisation accuracy towards far and weak signals from faraway spoofers and interferers.

GNSS Interference Detection and Localisation

OurEvents

The BALSAR project aims to demonstrate Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from a low-cost, rapidly deployable high-altitude balloon. Currently, such imagery is gathered either using aircraft, whether piloted or not, or satellites. Both of these systems are expensive and have various limitations. Aircraft require ground infrastructure, such as runways, and are limited in altitude. Satellites are limited in terms of revisit times that are determined by the orbit. The BALSAR system is intended to offer a complementary capability that can enhance existing systems.

The BALSAR project is funded by NATO under the Science for Peace and Security (SPS) scheme. The project comprises two nodes: the first, directed by Prof. Marco Martorella at the University of Pisa, is responsible for the delivery of a minutiarised SAR system, whereas the second, which is directed by Dr Elias Aboutanios at ACSER, will design and test the high-altitude platform (HAP) and integrate the radar into it. The UNSW node will also carry out the demonstrator mission to generate the SAR image and verify the system.

The project is quite challenging involving research into the design of the platform to provide the various operational needs of the radar, such as accurate positioning, stabilisation, power, communications, et.c… On the radar side, the team is carrying out research into the generation

of SAR images from non-uniform and uncontrolled motion.

2017 was busy and productive for us. We set up the project and concluded all the agreements between the parties involved. At the UNSW node, we obtained a three-year permit from CASA to carry out light balloon missions from Muswellbrook and Merriwa. We had two balloon missions to measure flight dynamics and environmental parameters. These missions have been successful and we are now looking forward to our next mission to test our ideas for stabilisation.

BALSAR – A High-Altitude Balloon-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar


Cubesat Innovation Workshop 2017

ACSER hosted the second Cubesat Workshop (“Launching Cubesats for and from Australia”), held 19-21 April 2017. In an amazing coincidence that wasn’t (and couldn’t have been) scripted, the first Australian-built satellites in fifteen years were launched the morning that the workshop began, so there was a slight delay to commencing proceedings as cakes were cut for the two cubesats ACSER was involved with: UNSW-EC0, its own satellite, and INSPIRE-2, in collaboration with USyd and ANU.

Although the event was primarily attended by NSW delegates, we did have six states and territories represented, and one international. The split was about 50/50 academic and industry, with a healthy start-up presence. Day 1 was primarily the Australian scene, the QB50 mission and academic research, whereas all of day

two was taken up with the innovations of students and start-ups.

The major sponsorship of Optus was critical to the smooth running of the event .

The fact the launch happened was emblematic of the way that the cubesat scene had radically changed since the previous event two years previously. At the end of the workshop the participants agreed that two years was too long to wait for the next event, which will be scheduled in 2018.

Above: Photos from the cake-cutting ceremony celebrating the launch of UNSW-EC0 and INSPIRE-2Left: Photos from the CUBESAT2017 workshop

ACSER Annual Report 201716

Sydney Space Festival

With the IAC in Adelaide attracting many space people to Australia, ACSER, along with SADIG and the AIAA, organised a series of events in Sydney in the week before the IAC, to allow visitors to meet Sydney-based space people and give them an excuse to spend the weekend in Sydney (rather than Adelaide?).

The events were:

Tuesday 19th SeptemberNASA Guest Lecture: “Zero Launch Mass Space Pioneering” Free public lecture presented by NASA Kennedy Space Center and Swampworks Senior Technologist, Robert P. Mueller 5:45pm - 7:15pm, UNSW Sydney

Wednesday and Thursday, 20th and 21st September3rd Off Earth Mining Forum (OEMF2017) 9am - 5pm each day, UNSW Sydney

Wednesday 20th SeptemberOEMF2017 Networking Dinner Cruise7pm, Darling Harbour

Thursday 21st SeptemberAIAA Astronaut Stories Sydney: From STEM to Space STEM event for High School students 9am - 3pm, Powerhouse Museum (MAAS)

Thursday 21st SeptemberAIAA’s An Evening of Astronaut Stories - Sydney Free public panel with two former NASA Astronauts 6:30pm - 8:30 pm, University of Sydney

Friday 22nd SeptemberMeet the Sydney Space Industry Includes guest talk by retired NASA astronaut Col. Pamela Melroy Circular Quay, Sydney CBD

Above: Photos from the Kenneth Finlay Memorial Lecutre and Dinner featuring NASA’s Rob Mueller as guest speaker and panel member. The Panel also included Laurent Sibille from NASA SwampworksRight: Photos from the Space Industry Drinks night, sponsored by SADIG


Off-Earth Mining Forum

The 3rd Off-Earth Mining Forum (OEMF) was chaired by Professor Dempster of ACSER and Associate Professor Serkan Saydam of the UNSW School of Mining Engineering in September 2017. The event was the highlight of “Sydney Space Festival”, organised by ACSER, SADIG and the AIAA, to highlight space activity in Sydney ahead of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide.

The first two Off-Earth Mining Forums, also chaired by Prof Dempster and A/Prof Saydam, were held at UNSW’s Kensington campus in February 2013 and the Australian Technology Park in November 2015. This second event was co-located with the 3rd International Future Mining Conference (FMC), chaired by A/Prof Saydam.

By scheduling the OEMF to run the week before the IAC, and coordinating with the events of the Space Festival, it was possible for the Forum to attract speakers of the highest calibre to UNSW. There was a total of 82 attendees, with 29 internationals from 12 countries. There was a healthy mix of academic, government, industry and students, with no group dominating.

Officially, the Forum opened with the free public lecture by NASA Kennedy Space Center and Swampworks Senior

Technologist, Rob Mueller: “Zero Launch Mass Space Pioneering”. The lecture was followed by the Kenneth Finlay Memorial Dinner.

Forum speakers covered topics such as geology and geodynamics, commercial sector, international perspectives, robotics, mining technologies, mission design, the moon, Mars and asteroids. They came from NASA (3), ESA, Luxembourg government, large companies (United Launch Alliance, Dassault), and of course space mining companies (iSpace, Planetary Resources, Asteroid Enterprises).

There were wide ranging discussions and progress was clear since the previous Forum. Whereas at the 2nd OEMF, the main development was the decision to concentrate on water, the main development at this forum was the size of the teams in the off-earth mining companies, indicating real and significant investment.

We really appreciate the sponsorship of The Chief Scientist and Engineer, NSW Government, The UNSW School of Mining Engineering and UNSW Grand Challenges.

At present the date for the next OEMF has not been decided but it may coordinate again with the FMC in 2019.

Top: Panel members left to right - Pamela Melroy (former Astronaut), Piero Messina (ESA), Mark Serres (Lux Gov’t), Ben Basely-Walker (Planetary Resources), Melissa Sampson (ULA), Laurent Sibille (NASA Swampworks)Above: Prof Andrew Dempster and A/Prof Serkan Saydam addressing the workshopLeft: Photos from the OEMF2017 workshop


OEMF2017 PROGRAM - DRAFT ONLY (as of 19 Sept)

Speaker Company Presentation Title

DAY 1 - Wednesday 20th September Day 1, Session 1 Chair: Andrew Dempster

KEYNOTE & Opening SessionGeology and Geodynamics around the Solar System

9:00 Andrew Dempster/Serkan Saydam UNSW Sydney Introduction9:10 Robert Anderson NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Was Mars Like the Earth Long Ago? What Have We Learned from the Mars Rover

Missions9:50 Laurent Sibille Ascentech Enterprises Inc., Kennedy

Space CenterCan Off-Earth Mining feasibility studies be done effectively today? A case for Mars with a new tool

10:10 Sydney Do NASA JPL Selecting a Landing Site for Human Missions to Mars – An Overview of Current Activities and Open Trades

10:30 MORNING TEA Day 1, Session 2 Chair: Tim Parsons

The Commercial Sector in Off-Earth Resources11:00 Ben Baseley-Walker Planetary Resources Planetary Resources11:20 Kyle Acierno ispace Europe, S.A. ispace future lunar missions: The Google Lunar XPRIZE, Luxembourg Space

Resource Initiative, and beyond11:40 Melissa Sampson United Launch Alliance Launch Services for Space Commercialization12:00 Matthew Johnson UTS Privateering on the celestial frontier? The ‘NewSpace’ quest for private property

in outer space12:15 Serkan Saydam Journal Discussion12:30 LUNCH Day 1, Session 3 Chair: Kirby Ikin

International Perspectives13:30 Michael Simpson Vice-Chair of The Hague Space

Resources Governance Working GroupThe Hague Space Resources Working Group

13:50 Piero Messina European Space Agency (ESA), Strategy Department

The vision for a Moon Village

14:10 Marc Serres Head of Space Affairs, Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The Luxembourg framework to support the development of commercial exploration and utilization of space resources

14:30 Fabio Tronchetti Chinese Institute of Astronautics Engineering Development Strategies (CIAEDS), Beihang, University, Beijing,

Space Resources Utilization: a Chinese perspective

14:50 Ian Burke Perry Off-Earth Mining under the Outer Space Treaty: Legal with Future Challenges

15:05 AFTERNOON TEA Day 1, Session 4 Chair: Laurent Sibille

Robotics for Exploration, Prospecting and Construction15:35 Pamela Melroy ex-DARPA Space Robotics for Servicing and Construction 15:55 Kris Zacny Honeybee Robotics Lunar Prospecting and Mining16:10 Damon Ellender UNSW Sydney A market analysis for commercial ISRU production16:25 PANEL Topic: 10 years from now: Where do we see ourselves?16:55 Andrew Dempster/Serkan Saydam Wrap Up17:00 DAY END

DAY 2 - Thursday 21st September Day 2, Session 1 Chair: Serkan Saydam

Making the most of in-situ resources: Lunar9:00 Serkan Saydam/Andrew Dempster9:05 Robert Mueller Swamp Works, NASA Kennedy Space

CenterIn-Situ Additive Construction in Space: 3D Printing a Habitat for Astronauts

9:45 Danielle DeLatte & Sophia Casanova Lunarport: A Launch and Supply Station for Deep Space Missions 10:00 David Dickson NASA Kennedy Space Centre A Technology Roadmap Towards Mineral Exploration for Extreme Environments

in Space10:15 MORNING TEA Day 2, Session 2 Chair: Danielle DeLatte

ISRU: Advanced Mining Technologies10:45 Jürgen Schleppi Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh Glass Manufactured from Extraterrestrial Resources as an Enabler of Solar

Conversion Technologies in Space11:00 Andy Mulholland Dassault Systemes Realistic Multiphysics Simulation for Off Earth Mining11:20 Norbert Frischauf OffWorld Consortium OffWorld Industrialization Using Space Resources11:40 James Tibbet UNSW School of Mining Engineering The Use of Virtual Reality for Collaborative Data Analysis: Optimising Projects

with Uncertainties12:00 LUNCH + Virtual Reality Demonstrations in the School of Mining Day 2, Session 3 Chair: Michael Dello-Iacovo

Making the most of in-situ resources: Mars13:20 Ömer Aydan University of the Ryukyus, Japan Some Thoughts about the aspects of rock mechanics and rock engineering in

Mars13:40 Jon Clarke Mars Society Australia Regolith Resource Requirements for an Expanding Mars Facility14:00 Sophia Casanova UNSW Sydney The Prospectivity of Mid-Latitude Buried Ice Deposits on Mars14:15 Tim Pelech UNSW Sydney Learnings from the Australian Mining Industry applied to the preparation of In-

Situ Resource Utilisation systems for Mars14:30 Carlos Tapia Cortez UNSW Sydney Adapting Open Pit Mining Optimisation Techniques to Design Martian Mining

Missions for Water Extraction14:45 James Bevington HI-SEAS Biological Production of Methane in Space and an Introduction from HI-SEAS

14:55 AFTERNOON TEA Day 2, Session 4 Chair: Jason Held

Asteroid Missions: Planning, Prospecting and Navigation15:25 Mark Sonter Asteroid Enterprises Pty Ltd Asteroid mining: concepts developments from terrestrial mining15:45 Michael Dello-Iacovo UNSW Sydney Seismic geophysics: Potential and considerations for asteroid exploration16:00 Arunkumar Rathinam UNSW Sydney Autonomous spacecraft navigation near an asteroid 16:15 Scott Dorrington UNSW Sydney Asteroid Mining Logistics16:30 Tim Broadbent UNSW Sydney Generic Mission Design for Near Earth Asteroid Prospecting 16:45 Andrew Dempster/Serkan Saydam Wrap up17:00 DAY END

Off-Earth Mining Forum Program

ACSER Seminar SeriesACSER’s lunch-time seminar series plays an important role in achieving several of its aims: outreach, engagement within and without the faculty and university, mentoring of staff, and research training for postgraduate students. The series kept up its momentum in 2017, including not just staff and students from UNSW, but also attracting students from other universities and interested people from industry and the wider community.

Radar, from Urban Sensing to Elderly Care9 February 2017Lecture Theatre M18, Chemical Sciences Building

Presented by Dr Moeness AminDirector, Center for Advanced Communications Villanova University, USA

Computationally Efficient Non-linear Kalman Filters for On-board Space Vehicle Navigation16 February 2017Lecture Theatre M18, Chemical Sciences Building

Presented by Sanat BiswasACSER PhD Graduand

Space Activities at the German Center of Applied Space Technologies and Microgravity (ZARM)23 February 2017 Lecture Theatre M18, Chemical Sciences Building

Presented by Benny Rivers and Felix Finke of the German Centre of Applied Space Techologies and Microgravity (ZARM)

Dynamically configurable architectures for multi-GNSS receivers29 March 2017Electrical Engineering Building, Room G3

Presented by Vinh Tran, ACSER PhD Graduand

Zero Launch Mass Space Pioneering19 September 2017Leighton Hall, Scientia Building, UNSW Sydney

Presented by Robert P. MuellerSenior Technologist: Advanced Projects DevelopmentSurface Systems OfficeNASA, Kennedy Space Center


YEAR IN REVIEW: Other Highlights

17th Australian Space Research Conference (ASRC), University of Sydney

November 2017

ACSER team members contributed several posters and presentations to the 2017 conference, covering topics such as the UNSW QB50 satellite project and groundstation, Off Earth Mining and our GPS FPGA work. Once again ACSER supported the secretariat functions of the event under an agreement witht the NSSA.

UNSW Open DaySeptember 2017

This was the 4th year that ACSER has participated in Open Day under the School Electrical Engineering. Volunteers discussed our many research projects with high school students and their parents, passing around the QB50 3D printed model, as well as handing out scale 3D printed models of asteroid 4179 Toutatis with maps of Sydney (kindly provided by William Crowe, UNSW PhD student and founder of space start-up HEO Robotics).

Optus Groundstation Visit

June 2017

ACSER team members and associates enjoyed a personalised tour of the Optus Groundstation facilities at Belrose, this time with the added benefit of our own QB50 team member and Masters (Satellite Systems) student, Tim Broadbent, assisting in leading the tour under his new role as an Optus groundstation operator. During a break in tour, ACSER associate and HEO Robotics start-up CEO, Will Crowe, made a business presentation to the Optus crew, showcasing their new proposals for real-time in-situ satellite monitoring and maintenance.

Sydney Science FestivalAugust 2017

The QB50 team were invited to participate in the DIY Day at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (formerly the Powerhouse Museum) as part of the Sydney Science Festival. This program was created to celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of NSW’s talented maker community, exhbiting many hands-on making and experiences from some 20 partner organisations. The diverse program featured digital fabrication, food, repair cafes, upholstery workshops, origami demos, bike workshops, ceramics, quilting and more, in addition to our own hands-on cubesat information display.

Visit to Gilmour Space in SingaporeDecember 2017

In December Prof Dempster, Dr Aboutanios and Dr Cheong visited the Gilmour Space offices in Singapore as part of our Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE)/DIIS Global Connections Fund – Priming Grant.

Forthcoming collaborations were confirmed in the following areas:

• 2018 Linkage Grant application

• BLUEsat rover project in conjunction with NASA

• Use of our Kea GPS receiver for navigation on a 2018 rocket launch (exact date tbc)

Gilmour Space was a start-up that is now expanding into SME status with significant investment and several capability milestones reached with their rocket launch technology. They operate our of Singapore and Queensland.

Faculty of Engineering Staff AwardsDecember 2017

ACSER was very proud to have two of its staff recognised in the 2017 Faculty of Engineering Staff Awards, presented at the Faculty Chrismas party in December. Dr Joon Wayn Cheong was recognised for excellence in his role as Technical Lead on the UNSW-EC0 QB50 project, whilc Cheryl Brown was recognised for excellence in delivery of multiple high profile events for ACSER.


Media & Publicity

ACSER media attention in 2017 was dominated by the QB50 project in the latter half of the year, however a steady inflow of general media enquiries seeking expert comment on all space-related matters shows that we are maintaining, if not growing, our reputation as national leaders in space.

2017 Media Coverage:

• Better late than never, Australia heads (back) to space, Australian Aviation, 29 December 2017

• Trump and Space: What do the Scientists Think?, 2SER Radio, 13 December 2017

• Interview with Prof Andrew Dempster, ABC Radio Mildura, 1 December 2017

• Understanding the Global Navigation Satellite System (article by ACSER PhD student Benjamin Southwell), Open Forum, 22 November 2017

• UNSW Professor says off-world mining may launch in the next decade, Australian Mining, 4 October 2017

• Space mining in 10,9,8…,ECU Daily , 2 October 2017• What the space agency will mean for business, BIT, 26

September 2017• Aussies: It’s Time To Dust Off Your Dream Of Becoming An

Astronaut, Gizmodo, 26 September 2017• AUSTRALIA BACK IN THE SPACE RACE, The Wire, 25

September 2017• Australia joins the space race with national agency

announced, ABC News Radio, 25 September 2017• Government announces creation of national space agency,

Lateline, ABC News, 25 September 2017• Get ready for an Australian astronaut, UNSW Newsroom, 25

September 2017• Yes, Australia will have a space agency. What does this

mean? Experts respond, The Conversation, 25 September 2017

• Asteroid mining could take place in space within the next decade, NZ Herald, 23 September 2017

• Sophie Casanova and Andrew Dempster: Prospecting for water on Mars, NZ Herald, 23 September 2017

• First space mining transaction in 10 years, Space Daily , 22 September 2017

• The first asteroid mining and resource transaction could take place in space within the next decade, News.com.au , 21 September 2017

• Australian expert expects first space mining transaction in 10 years, Xinhua, 20 September 2017

• Preventing Murray-Darling water theft: a space agency can help Australia manage federal resources, The Converstation, 20 September 2017

• Interview with A/Prof Serkan Saydam, BBC World News, 19 September 2017

• Ice mined on Mars could provide water for humans exploring space, The Conversation, 15 September 2017

• Last in space: the case for an Australian ‘catch up’ space program, The New Daily, 13 July 2017

• Australian businesses eye final frontier as calls for space agency grow, SBS News, 31 July 2017

• Australia’s First GPS Infrastructure Officially in Space, Inside • GNSS, 25 July 2017• Australia Looks to Create Potential Space Agency, SYN 90.7

Radio, 24 July 2017• Aussies in space, Channel Ten’s The Project, 20 July 2017• Just one small step for Australia’s space industry when a

giant leap is needed, The Conversation, 18 July 2017• Australian Defence Delivers World First GPS Cube-satellite,

Website of Christopher Pyne, Minister for Defence, 18 July 2017

• Sky-high ambition, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 2017• ‘Space agency’ one option as Australia pursues $420b space

technology sector, SBS News,13 July 2017• Interview with Prof Andrew Demptster, ABC Radio Perth, 13

July 2017• Australia ‘freeloading’ from other countries when it comes to

satellite data, expert says, ABC News Online, 13 July 2017• Mining the Skies, INGENUITY, Issue 1 - Winter 2017, 1 July

2017 (page 18)• Space Invaders, INGENUITY, Issue 1 - Winter 2017, 1 July

2017 (page 14)• How the nanosatellite boom and battle for space could end in

disaster for us all, Business Insider, 30 June2017• “Engineering the heck out of this”: rescue of ‘lost’ Australian

satellites, Spatial Source, 28 June 2017• UNSW in thrilling rescue of ‘lost’ Aussie satellites, UNSW

Engineering, 26 June 2017• UNSW in thrilling rescue of ‘lost’ Aussie satellites, UNSW

Newsroom, 26 June 2017• UNSW satellite alive and well, UNSW Engineering, 22 June

2017• International Team of Amateur Radio Volunteers Help

Recover Stalled Satellites, UNSW Electrical Engineening, 22 June 2017

• Australia’s INSPIRE-2 mini cube satellite launched with flat battery, Canberra Times, 22 June 2017

• INSPIRE-2 Ground Controllers Turn to Amateur Radio, Rescue Stalled Satellite, ARRL.org, 19 June 2017

• New Australian UNSW-EC0 satellite deployed into space, Aerospace Technology, 30 May 2017

68th Annual International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, AustraliaSeptember 2017

The ACSER team made the most of the IAC being hosted in Australia in 2017, with a big show of numbers by the team, and presentations or posters from four of the crew.

Fleet launch party


• Australian satellite in orbit, but no signal detected so far, UNSW Engineering, 26 May 2017

• Update: Australian satellite in orbit, UNSW Newsroom, 26 May 2017

• High Wired update: call home, The Australian, 26 May 2017• Australian satellite in orbit, Phys.org, 26 May 2017• First flight of New Zealand rocket reaches space, but not orbit,

ABC Radio - The World Today, 26 May 2017• Australian satellites to deploy from space station today, UNSW

Newsroom, 25 May 2017 Launch of Aussie satellites could mark a re-entry for space industry, The Australian, 25 May 2017

• A constellation of tiny satellites, ABC Radio National, 4 May 2017

• Australia’s back in the space race, 2UE Radio, 26 April 2017• Australian space technology skyrockets,PS News, 25 April 2017• First Australian-built satellites launched in 15 years, Smart

Company, 24 April 2017• Launched: first Australian satellites in 15 years, Government

News, 21 April 2017• Launched: first Australian satellites in 15 years, Spatial Source,

21 April 2017• Australia returns to space with three mini satellites successfully

launched to the Space Station, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2017

• These Tiny, Cube-Shaped Satellites Are Launching Australia Back Into Space, Huffington Post, 19 April 2017

• Australia returns to the satellite business with ‘cubesats’, International Business Times, 19 April 2017

• Aussie satellites blasted into space on research mission, IT Wire, 19 April 2017

• UNSW satellites blast off to explore the thermosphere, UNSW News, 19 April 2017

• UNSW satellites blast off to explore the thermosphere, UNSW Engineering News, 19 April 2017

• 3 Australian satellites launched into space for ISS studies, China.org.cn, 19 April 2017

• Aussie satellite launch inspires space push, Sky News, 19 April 2017

• Satellites set for launch, Sky News, 19 April 2017• Three Australian research satellites launched into space from

Cape Canaveral, Daily Telegraph, 19 April 2017• Australia’s back in the satellite business with a new launch, The

Conversation, 18 April 2017• Nano-satellites enable space exploration on a budget, Asian

Nikkei Review, 13 April 2017• Thirty-Eight Smallsats Set for Orbital Assignments from Cygnus

and ISS, Sat News Daily, 24 April 2017• AMSAT Reschedules Fox Series Launches, National

Association for Amateur Radio, 28 March 2017• Atlas V conducts OA-7 Cygnus launch to the ISS,

NasaSpaceflight.com, 18 April 2017• Satellite built by University of Adelaide launched into space by

NASA, ABC News, 19 April 2017• First Aussie-made satellites sent to space in 15 years, 7 News,

19 April 2017• Interview with Andrew Dempster, Radio Adelaide, 6 April 2017

• 3 Aussie-Made Cubesats Will Hit Space Today, Destined For The ISS, Gizmodo, 25 March 2017

• Interview with Elias Aboutanios, ABC Brisbane Radio - Sunday Breakfast, 26 March 2017 (starts at 36:30)

• Space White Paper - live cross to UNSW ACSER, 21 March 2017

• Interview with Andrew Dempster, Sky News, 21 March 2017• If your gadgets die in the next two weeks blame it on the sun,

New York Post, 21 March 2017• Sun outages: Why your TV, radio and internet might drop out in

the next fortnight, ABC News, 20 March 2017• Can microwaves be used for surveillance?, Sydney Morning

Herald, 14 March 2017• Pocket rocket - SA’s shoebox-sized satellite, The Advertiser, 10

March 2017• Playback of 2016 ASRC UNSW EC0 presentation audio by Dr

Joon Cheong, The Space Show, Southern FM 88.3 (VIC), 1 March 2017

• Space X announce private moon mission, ABC Radio World Today, 28 February 2017

• Nano-satellites thrust Australia back into space, Nikkei Asian Review, 23 February 2017

• Case Study: Protecting our critical satellite navigation infrastructure, UNSW Engineering website, February 2017

• Asteroid mining anyone?, ABC Radio, 24 January 2017

Full list with links available from: acser.unsw.edu.au/acser-in-the-news

OurStudents


Undergraduate Education

BLUEsat is a society of students at UNSW Australia dedicated to creating easy-to-access space technology.

Mission Statement:

The mission of the group is to provide students real-world experience in multi-disciplinary space engineering projects, and promote space technology in Australia. Our current projects are:

• Development of a stabilised stratospheric vehicle for remote-sensing and scientific experiments at altitudes over 20km.

• Developing CubeSat subsystems and a mission payload

• Construction of a Mars Rover for entry into the European Rover Challenge (ERC)

• Communication with satellites with our Groundstation, in particular the UNSW EC0 QB50 satellite

Club History

BLUEsat was started in 1997 as the Basic Low-Earth Orbit UNSW Experimental Satellite (BLUEsat) project, aimed at designing, building and launching the first undergraduate satellite in Australia. With the completion and demonstration of our first prototype in early 2013, the Group expanded its operations to include research into emerging CubeSat technologies, off-world rovers and near space experimental platforms.

Satellite Project

The Satellite team’s goal is to construct a CubeSat to carry the experimental payload developed by the Greensat team. Current subsystems that are in production are the ADCS and Power subsystems.

Greensat

Greensat is a team of engineers and biologists focused on constructing the BLUEsat payload and the microbiology experiments. The team aims to create a system capable of feeding people in space and resilient enough to withstand the harsh conditions of space.

High-Altitude Ballooning

The High-Altitude Ballooning project sends student-developed payloads to over 20km in altitude using stratospheric balloons. The team is working towards building a balloon-borne synthetic-aperture radar system by 2020, a project which is funded by NATO and

supervised by ACSER.

Groundstation

The primary operation of BLUEsat’s Groundstation is to support and advance ACSER’s communication operation with the EC0. The team also provides training in amateur radio licenses with the help of the St George Wireless club.

Off World Robotics

The BLUEsat Off-World Robotics group provides an opportunity for students to develop robotic systems with a particular focus on extra-terrestrial exploration. Our rovers compete internationally in the European Space Agencies “European Rover Challenge (ERC)”.

Coming off our successes in ERC in 2015 (15th place) and 2016 (9th place), the OWR team is developing a new rover to compete in 2018. The new Rover has a fully modular systems BUS allowing for a variety of configurations and new payloads to be added later.

BLUEsat

Right Top Half: BLUEsat Members assembling Rover in labRight Bottom Half: Views of Ballon Launch, Ground Station and image of Earth from Bollon in Space

Top: BLUEsat Team Group Photo Bottom: BLUEsat Recieving award for services to UNSW Engineering Society


Year & Semesters

Name School Supervisors Topic

S2 2016 - S1 2017 Lu,Zhouhao EET Andrew Dempster Monitoring space junk using optical telescopes in space

S2 2016 - S1 2017 Angus Blackmore EET Eamonn Glennon & Andrew Dempster

GPS on a Tumbling Spacecraft

S2 2016 - S1 2017 Hubert Wan EET Ediz Cetin Investigating potential use of Stochastic Computing in space

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Brenden Crago EET Ediz Cetin & Vidhya Sethu

Can FPGAs and fixed-point arithmetic speed up deep learning training

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Jian Yang EET Elias Aboutanios & Joon Wayn Cheong

Localization of Interference Source

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Bingzhuo Liu EET Elias Aboutanios Deorbit Mechanisms for Small Satellites

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Angus Fletcher EET Andrew Dempster GPS reflectometry for soil moisture content measurement

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Vance Le EET Andrew Dempster Monitoring space junk using radar

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Wei Jun Jonathan Lee

EET Andrew Dempster Analysis of Errors in WiFi Positioning

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Thomas Mitchell CSE Oliver Diessel Floorplanning HLS circuits

S2 2017 - S1 2018 XiangDa Zhu EET Andrew Dempster Cubesat Frequency Allocation

S2 2017 - S1 2018 Mark Brodie EET Joon Wayn Cheong Distributed and Automated CubeSat Ground Station System

S2 2017 - S1 2018 Om Bahadur Thapa

EET Andrew Dempster Quality Measures for WiFi Positioning

S2 2017 - S1 2018 Michael Bernardi CSE Oliver Diessel Correct high-level synthesis of TMR circuits for FPGAs

Honours Supervision

ACSER projects have made an exciting and enriching contribution to the range of thesis topics available to UNSW Engineering students. In particular, the QB50 cubesat satellite project has provided a wide range of topics for students to study with both practical applications and accessible testing materials. Listed below are the students and topics supervised by ACSER staff and affiliates.

International Postgraduate Research Students on Practicum ExchangeDates/ Duration

Name School Supervisors Topic Program and Home Institution

S2 2017 - S2 2018

Chao SUN

EET Andrew Dempster, Joon Wayn Cheong

Applying spoofer and/or multipath identification using advanced techniques

Chinese Scholarship Council, Beihang University

Postgraduate Coursework Thesis SupervisionDuration Name School Supervisors Topic Program

S2 2016 - S1 2017 Monique Hollick EET Elias Aboutanios Vibration Analysis of UNSW EC0 CubeSat MEngSc (Satellite

Systems)

S2 2016 - S1 2017 Tim Broadbent EET Andrew Demspter Asteroid Prospecting Missions MEngSc (Satellite

Systems)

S1 2017 - S2 2017 Xiaodong Zhang EET Ediz Cetin Ultra-low Power Processor Design for

Wireless Communications BE/ME

S1 2017 - S2 2017 William Baxter EET Elias Aboutanios

Signals Processing of Antenna Array Systems BE/ME

S2 2017 - S1 2018 Kulwinder Kaur EET Joon Wayn Cheong

In-Orbit Verification of an ADCS for UNSW EC0

S2 2017 - S1 2018 Yang Feng EET Joon Wayn Cheong Machine Learning on Wi-Fi Positioning

S2 2017 - S1 2018 Shan Cao EET Joon Wayn Cheong

Resilient Multi-vehicle Positioning with Sensor Errors ME

Postgraduate Coursework

Master of Engineering Science (Satellite Systems Engineering)

SEMESTER 1

4 core courses:

1. AERO9500 Space Systems Architectures and Orbits

2. ZEIT8012 Space Systems Engineering

3. ELEC9762 Space Mission Development

4. ELEC9765 Space Law and Radio Regulations

SEMESTER 3

2 Electives, year-long project

SEMSTER 2

4 core courses:

1. ELEC9764 The Ground Segment and Space Operations

2. AERO9610 The Space Segment

3. ZEIT8013 Space Applications 1

4. GMAT9765 Space Applications 2 (although this will eventually become either a Civil or Electrical course).

SEMESTER 4

2 Electives, year-long project

In 2014, the University replaced the 8539 Master of Engineering Science Extension program with the 8338 Master of Engineering Science program. Therefore the ELECSS8539 stream was revised to fit the new program and the new stream is now called the ELECOS8338 Master of Engineering Science in Satellite Systems Engineering (the ELECOS8338 Satellite Systems Engineering stream). Only one student remains enrolled in the old 8539 program code.

The ELECOS8338 stream now comprises 8 core courses, 4 electives and a project. The recommended structure for full time study is listed below.

2015 saw a coordinated advertising campaign with the help of the Faculty. This led to applications and subsequently new enrolments. The number of enrolments currently grew to 13 in 2016. Efforts are ongoing to

advertise the program to industry and wider networks.

In 2016 we ran the AERO9500, ELEC9762, AERO9610 courses for the 3rd time, ELEC9764 for the second time and ELEC9765 ran under its own code for the first time (although it ran as a Supervised Reading Course in 2015).

In 2017 there were 11 fully enrolled students in the program, whilst some of the courses, such as ELEC9764, started to pick up pace as attractive electives for students in other Masters specialisations, or in later years of undergrad. We were proud to announce our first graudations towards the end of the year, big congratulations to Tim Broadbent, now working at the Optus Satellite Groundstation in Belrose, and Monique Hollick, who continues her work with the DST Group in Adelaide.


Over 110 email enquiries from around the world were received during 2017 regarding PhD topics listed on the ACSER PhD website:

acser.usnw.edu.au/phd-opportunities

Higher Degree ResearchPostgraduate Research Students supervised by ACSER Affiliates in 2017Student Program

TypeSchool Commen-

cement/EndYear

ACSER Funded Scholarship/Stipend

Topic Supervisor/s

Sanat Biswas PhD EET 2013- 2017$25,000/annum (3 Years

Real-time On-board Satellite Navigation using Multi-GNSS Receiver

Andrew Dempster, Li (Lily) Qiao

Vinh Tran PhD EET 2013-2017 Dynamically configurable architectures for multi-GNSS receivers Andrew Dempster

Madeleine Sabordo PhD EET 2014-Present Moving Target Detection and Tracking using Radar in Heterogeneous Clutter Elias Aboutanios

Scott Dorrington PhD MECH 2014-Present Trajectory design for asteroid mining missions

Nathan Kinkai, John Olsen

William Crowe PhD MECH 2014-Present Characterising asteroids using spacecraft swarms

Nathan Kinkaid, John Page and John Olsen

Carlos Tapia Cortez PhD MECH 2014-Present Water Extraction - Mars’ Mining Model (WEM^3) Serkan Saydam

Ben Southwell PhD EET 2015-Present Remote sensing using reflected GNSS signals Andrew Dempster

Arunkumar Rathinam PhD EET 2015-Present Autonomous Navigtaion of Spacecradft

Near an Asteroid Andrew Dempster

Md Mahbubur Rahman

Masters by Research

EET 2015-Present Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Reciever Design

Andrew Dempster, Binghao Li

Elizabeth SmithMasters by Research

EET 2016-Present Integrity of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems

Andrew Dempster, Joon Wayn Cheong

Michael Dello-Iacovo PhD MINE 2016-Present Off-Earth Geophysics for prospecting, mining and asteroid deflection

Serkan Saydam, Andrew Dempster

Sophia Casanova PhD MINE 2016-Present High Altitude Cubesats Serkan Saydam, Andrew Dempster

Tim Pelech PhD MINE 2017-Present Off-Earth Mining Systems Design Serkan Saydam, Andrew Dempster

Noor Taofiq Huq PhD EET 2017-Present High Altitude Cubesats Andrew Dempster, Joon Wayn Cheong

Damon Ellender PhD EET 2017-Present Robotics for Off Earth Mining Andrew Dempster, Serkan Saydam

Nicholas Bennett PhD EET 2017-Present Economic study of off Earth mining for profitable exploitation of asteriods

Andrew Dempster, Serkan Saydam

Mohsen Fadaee Nejad PhD EET 2017-Present

Design and Development of a supervisory control system for Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS)

Andrew Dempster, Joon Wayn Cheong

OurPeople


Our People

Academic StaffProfessor Andrew Dempster is Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He has a BE and MEngSc from UNSW and a PhD from University of Cambridge in efficient circuits for signal processing arithmetic. In the late

80s he was system engineer and project manager for the first GPS receiver developed in Australia and has been involved in satellite navigation ever since.

His current research interests are in satellite navigation receiver design and signal processing, areas where he has seven patents, and new location technologies. He is leading the development of space engineering research at ACSER.

Dr Elias Aboutanios is the Deputy Director of Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) and Senior Lecturer with the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications. He received his BE in Electrical Engineering from UNSW and PhD from UTS where he as a member of the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite

Systems. From 2003 to 2007 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Digital Communications at the University of Edinburgh. Since 2007 he has been a senior lecturer at UNSW. His research interests include:

• Signal processing • Statistical and multidimensional signal processing • Parameter estimation and signal detection

Dr Aboutanios is currently conducting research in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, global navigation satellite systems, radar target detection, power systems and smart grids, space systems, and high altitude balloons. He is also active in the research of teaching methodologies and course design. He has developed a new course on electrical engineering design. He is director of the masters program in satellite systems engineering. He established and is project leader of UNSW’s involvement in the European QB50 project. Dr Aboutanios is the academic mentor of BLUEsat.

Core Research TeamDr Eamonn Glennon’s first employment in the Australian Space Industry occurred 18 months after he graduated from UNSW with a B.Sc in Computer Science and BE (Hons I) in Electrical Engineering when he started work at Canberra based Auspace Ltd. There he worked on what was Australia’s very first GPS receiver and has not looked back since. This

work continued when the GPS technology was sold to Melbourne based Sigtec Pty Ltd and SigNav Pty Ltd was founded. At SigNav he was responsible for much of the firmware that forms the core of a GPS receiver, including development of GPS related algorithms and customisation of that firmware for applications ranging from tracking taxis using GPS combined with dead-reckoning through to putting GPS receivers into phone handsets and high precision GPS timing. During his time at SigNav, he also completed part time a MEngSc and a PhD in GPS signal processing. Following completion of his PhD he commenced work at UNSW where he continues to work on the UNSW FPGA based GPS receiver, with the aim of customising it for operation in cubesats and other space related applications

Dr Ediz Cetin is a Senior Research Associate at the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER), University of New South Wales, Australia. He received his B.Eng. (Hons) degree in Control and Computer Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Unsupervised Adaptive Signal Processing for Wireless Receivers from the University

of Westminster, London, United Kingdom. His research interests encompass interference detection and localization, fault-tolerant reconfigurable circuits for space applications, adaptive techniques for RF impairment mitigation for communications and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers and design and low-power implementation of digital circuits.

Dr Cetin left ACSER in early 2017 to take up a post as head of the Electronics Department at Macquarie University.

Dr Joon Wayn Cheong is a Research Associate at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). He developed the firmware for the space-qualified Namuru family of GPS/GALILEO integrated receivers under the Garada and QB50 project. He received his PhD from UNSW where he cracked the Locata pseudolite positioning system’s

signal structure. He also led the team who developed two of Australia’s first 2U Cubesats that was launched into space in April 2017.

Dr Lingkan (George) Gong is currently a Research Associate with the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, in a research team under the School of Computer Science and Engineering (UNSW).

Dr Ganghee (Jeremy) Lee is currently a Research Associate with the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, in a research team under the

School of Computer Science and Engineering (UNSW).

Support StaffCheryl Brown is Operations Coordinator for the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, managing all non-research aspects of Centre operations such as marketing and events, grant management, finance and HR. She also has a hand in assisting the BLUEsat student space-projects society, of which she was a founding member in her undergraduate

days at UNSW. After initially studying a BSc in Physics and Astronomy, she left Science to pursue a BA in Philosophy and The History and Philosohpy of Science, she worked a variety of roles in the not-for-profit sector before commencing with UNSW Engineering in student services in 2007. In 2011 she left that role to travel across Europe, Russia & Mongolia, before returning to Sydney to complete a Masters in Ancient World Studies at Sydney University while working part time with UNSW Built Environment.

Cheryl joined the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research at the start of 2014 as their sole administrator and was promoted to Operations Coordinator in 2015.


Affiliated Research Staff

Chris Rizos is Professor of Geodesy and Navigation at the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. Chris is the immediate Past President of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), a member of the Governing Board of the International GNSS Service (IGS), and a member

of the Bureau of the International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics (IUGG). Chris is a Fellow of the IAG, a Fellow and current president of the Australian Institute of Navigation, a Fellow of the U.S. Institute of Navigation, and an honorary professor of Wuhan University. Chris has been researching the technology and applications of GPS and other positioning systems for over three decades, and is an author or co-author of over 650 journal and conference papers.

Dr Craig Roberts is a Senior Lecturer majoring in Surveying/ GPS/ Geodesy in the Surveying and Geospatial Engineering group at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He graduated from the South Australian Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Surveying in 1988. He began his career as a

private surveyor in Adelaide and has since worked as a Geodetic Engineer at UNAVCO, USA involved with GPS for geodynamic studies in Nepal, Ethiopia, Argentina and Indonesia. He worked as a scientific assistant at the GeoForschungsZentrum, Germany where his main focus was orbit determination and prediction for a number of geodetic research satellites. He completed his PhD thesis on volcano monitoring using low-cost GPS networks in March 2002. He has lectured at RMIT University in Melbourne for two years. His current research interests involve implications of datum modernisation and leveraging CORS infrastructure for practical application to surveying and geospatial information.

Associate Professor Serkan Saydam received his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Mining Engineering from the Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey and completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Serkan joined the School of Mining Engineering as a Senior Lecturer in 2006 and was recently promoted to

Associate Professor. He currently holds two ARC Linkage Projects and one ACARP research grants worth of over $4 million on Ground Control area. In addition, he has recently sucessfully established a research collaboration with NASA’s JPL. His fields of research include mine planning & design, new mining methods and ground control.

Dr Oliver Diessel gained a B.Math. and BE in Computer Engineering with Honors in 1990 and a PhD in Computer Science in 1998 from the University of Newcastle, NSW. From 1986–1990 he was a Trainee Engineer and from 1991–1992 he was a Systems Engineer with Tomago-based Allco Steel Constructions. He joined UNSW as a lecturer following postdoctoral research

from 1998–2000 at the University of South Australia. Since then, he has been a Senior Researcher at National ICT Australia (NICTA), an Assistant Professor at UNSW Asia in Singapore, and become a Senior Lecturer, primarily involved in teaching digital systems and conducting research into the design, application and support of dynamically reconfigurable hardware. Oliver has had visiting appointments at CalTech and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in 2003 and Harbin Institute of Technology since 2014.

Dr Naomi Tsafnat is a Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering where she teaches orbital mechanics and spacecraft engineering. Her current research projects include the design of asteroid capture and bio-mining missions, and the study of bio-mimetic approaches to aerospace engineering. Dr Tsafnat has worked in the US at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space in satellite thermal design

and analysis, and was involved in various projects with NASA Ames Research Center. Dr Tsafnat supervises a PhD student and several undergraduate honours thesis students in space engineering projects, including QB50 and SMiLE.

Naomi left UNSW in early 2017 to pursue other goals. She continues to teach courses in the Masters program as a casual lecturer.

Dr Garth Pearce is a researcher in Aerospace Engineering, specialising in aerospace structures & composite materials. Garth’s interest in space research began with a concept for a composite, inflatable and rigidisable boom structure for volume limited payloads. He has co-supervised a number of honours and masters research projects with ACSER

investigating the rigidisable boom concept as well as more exotic topics; functional additive manufacture in space and space-based solar power.

Dr John Olsen is a Lecturer with the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. His research interests include:• Turbulence.• Simulation philosophy.• Swarms.• Co and Trigeneration systems.• Hybrid vehicles.• Combined heat & power systems.• Thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics.

• Entropy generation minimisation and exergy analysis.• The simulation of gas turbine engines, power stations,

reciprocating piston engines, refrigeration systems, living systems, entropy, etc.

Mr John Page moved to a Senior Lecturer post at the University of New South Wales in 1987 where he has; been responsible for design and simulation, was the founding Chairman for the Aviation program, was a founding member for the Co-operative Research Center for Aerospace Structures and headed the Aerospace Engineering

Department from 1990-2000. His teaching areas have included Aerospace Design, Flight Dynamics and Simulation, while his research has covered Simulation, Flight Track Development (Qantas PhD.) and Swarms. Previously he was a Senior Lecturer in aerospace engineering at Kingston Polytechnic with research interests focused on Aerospace Policy Studies with the NASA Commercial Office, and Military/Civil Conversions.


DAAD PROJECT VISITORS

In 2015 ACSER was awarded an Australia-Germany Joint Research Co-operation (DAAD) Grant, which funded an academic exchange between our Centre and the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen, Germany. In 2016 two academic’s from ZARM were able to come to Sydney for a 6 week stay, and a further two arrived in 2017.

The aim of the project is to perform preliminary development of a propulsion and GN&C subsystem capable of providing orbital correction and de-orbiting manoeuvres on a CubeSat.

Benny Rievers is a postdoc at the German Center of Applied Space Technologies and Microgravity (ZARM), University of Bremen and the head of the micro satellites and modelling methods group. He received a Diploma in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany in

2006 and did part of his undergraduate studies at the University of Rhode Island, USA. In 2012 he received a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Bremen, Germany. He was awarded with the “young researcher medal” of the “Werner-von-Siemens-Ring”-Foundation in 2013 and received the Zeldovich Medal in fundamental physics by COSPAR and the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2014. He is one of the PIs of the German CRC 1128: Geo-Q focussing at future spacebound geodesy applications.

Felix Finke is a PhD candidate part of the German Centre of Applied Space Technologies and Microgravity (ZARM), University of Bremen and a member of the micro satellites and modelling methods group. He received a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Aachen,

Germany in 2013. He worked as an operations engineer for the Rosetta landing probe Philae project from 2013 -2015. He started as a researcher aiming at a PhD in Aerospace Engineering in 2016 at ZARM, University of Bremen. His work is focussing on the improvement of Solar radiation pressure models for enhanced trajectory predictions.

VISITING PRACTICUM STUDENT

Chao Sun received the B.E. degree in Electronic and Information Engineering from Beihang University, China, where he is working toward the Ph.D. degree in information and communication engineering. He is currently a visiting Ph.D. student at the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research

(ACSER) since 2017. His research focuses on GNSS anti-spoofing techniques, multipath mitigation techniques and GNSS integrity.

VISITING ACADEMIC

Wenfei Guo is a visiting fellow of Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER), University of New South Wales. He is also a teacher in GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University. He received his Ph.D. in Communication and Information System from Wuhan University in 2011. His research currently focuses on GNSS

receiver and related signal processing technologies, such as high precise timing receivers, GNSS-R receivers and Anti-jamming receivers, etc.

ACSER Team 2017


2017 Industry Partners and Collaborators

NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY O F AU S T R A L I A LT D

Canberra|

Australian Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW

Governance


Steering CommitteeResponsible for ensuring the objectives of the Centre are pursued and implemented.

This Committee is comprised of internal UNSW executive as listed below.

Professor Andrew Dempster is Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is also Director of Research in the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems and Director of Postgraduate Research in the Faculty of Engineering. He has a BE and MEngSc from UNSW and a PhD from University of Cambridge in efficient circuits for signal processing arithmetic.

Andrew was system engineer and project manager for the first GPS receiver developed in Australia in the late 80s and has been involved in satellite navigation ever since. He is leading the development of space engineering research at ACSER.

Professor Russell Boyce holds the position of Chair for Space Engineering at UNSW Canberra, where he leads the UNSW Canberra Space Research effort. He brings to this role a research approach developed throughout 25 years in the field of hypersonics, coupling computational and experimental research with flight testing, most recently via the SCRAMSPACE scramjet flight experiment program which he led as Chair for Hypersonics at the University of Queensland. Professor Boyce also chairs the Australian

Academy of Science’s National Committee for Space and Radio Science, sits on the Executive Council of the Space Industry Association of Australia, and is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Professor Boyce’s current research focus is mainly in the arena of Space Situational Awareness.

Professor Eliathamby Ambikairajah is Head of School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. Professor Ambikairajah’s research interests include speech enhancement, speaker recognition, language recognition, emotion detection and biomedical signal processing. He has authored and co-authored more than 250 conference and journal papers, and is also a regular reviewer for several IEEE, IET and other journals and conferences. He

was the Technical Program Co-Chair for the inaugural APSIPA Summit and Conference in 2010. For his contributions to speaker recognition research, he was invited as a Visiting Scientist to the Institute of Infocomms Research (A*STAR), Singapore in 2009, where he is currently a Faculty Associate.

He received his BSc(Eng) degree from the University of Sri Lanka and received his PhD degree in Signal Processing from Keele University, UK. He was appointed as Head of Electronic Engineering and later Dean of Engineering at the Athlone Institute of Technology in the Republic of Ireland from 1982 to 1999. His key publications led to his repeated appointment as a short-term Invited Research Fellow with the British Telecom Laboratories, U.K., for ten years from 1989 to 1999.

Professor Ambikairajah received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2004 for his innovative use of educational technology, the School Awards for Teaching Excellence in 2003, and Academic Management in 2001. He is a currently an APSIPA Distinguished Lecturer for the 2013-14 term. He is a Fellow and a Chartered Engineer of the IET UK and Engineers Australia and is a Member of the IEEE and APSIPA.

In 2017 the Steering Committee was convened once. The Advisory Committee did not formally convene in 2017, however Prof Dempster met frequently with invidual members of the committee throughout the year.

Present at the 12th July Steering Committee meeting:• James Prior (for Russell Boyce)• Prof Martin Van Kranendonk• Prof E. Ambikairajah• Prof Andrew Dempster• Cheryl Brown

Apologies:• Prof Ian Gibson• Prof Russell Boyce (sent proxy)

Professor Martin Van Kranendonk is a Professor of Geology, with 28 years of mapping and research experience in a variety of structurally complex Precambrian terrains. His main interest is on the early history of the Earth and he has developed an international reputation for my work on Archean tectonics and the geological settings of early life on Earth. More recently, as Chair of the Precambrian Subcommission of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, he has commenced a wholescale review of Precambrian stratigraphy with the aim of

revising the Precambrian timescale. His particular skills are mapping and the ability to integrate a wide range of geological data into 4-D models, from the craton to micrometre scale.

Prof Van Kranendonk is also the Assistant Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, co-leader of IGCP-SIDA Project 599 “The Changing Early Earth”, and Core Member of the International Precambrian Research Centre of China, as well as being on the editorial boards of Precambrian Research, Geology, Astrobiology, and Episodes.

Professor Ian Gibson has over 25 years of experience as a computer scientist and engineer and at executive level R&D management. He has led the research, development and global commercialisation of new technology across a broad range of electrical engineering, computer science and digital imaging.

Professor Gibson was the founding CEO of Intersect Australia Ltd (2008 - 2015). Prior to this Professor Gibson was General Manager at CiSRA, the Australian R&D lab for Canon Inc, where (1992

- 2008) where he built research capability over several years to deliver world leading technology into a wide range of Canon’s major product groups generating hundreds of patents along the way.

He has a BE/BSc (1986) and a PhD(1990) from the University of New South Wales.

Advisory CommitteeResponsible for providing feedback on the strategy and direction of the Centre.

This Committee is comprised of the following internal UNSW executive and external industry members:

Professor Chris Rizos is currently Head of the School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Chris has been researching the technology and applications of GPS since 1985, and established over a decade ago the Satellite Navigation and Positioning group at UNSW, today the largest academic GPS/GNSS and wireless location technology research laboratory in Australia. Chris is the President of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), and a member of

the Executive and Governing Board of the International GNSS Service (IGS). Chris is currently Chair of the working group developing the strategic plan for GNSS for Australia.

Dr Nick Stacy was born in Adelaide Australia.He received a B.E. from the University of Adelaide in 1984, a M.S. from Stanford University in 1985 and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1993, all in Electrical Engineering.He worked at Arecibo Observatory from 1985 to 1986 and at British Aerospace Australia from 1987 to 1989.His work has included the acquisition and analysis of Arecibo Observatory radar observations of the Moon and the analysis of Arecibo and Magellan radar data of Venus. He joined the Australian

Defence Science and Technology Organisation in 1993 where he is a radar specialist working in the field of imaging radar signal processing and backscatter analysis primarily using the Ingara airborne radar system.

Mr Michael Davis was appointed the Chair of the SIAA in 2013 bringing with him a wealth of experience as a legal practitioner in the Australian space industry and other sectors. A graduate of the Master of Space Studies program at the International Space University, he has been involved in a wide range of space related pursuits including chairing the Advisory Board of the UniSA institute of Telecommunications Research, attending UN and ITU space meetings, representing Australian and overseas clients

involved in commercial launch, satellite and other space-related projects, co-authoring policy submissions on behalf of the association and organising the 2004 ISU Space Studies Program and the 2011-2013 Southern Hemisphere Summer Space Programs in Adelaide.

Mr Kirby Ikin is a global leader in commercial space development with advanced negotiation, risk management, and analytical skills. At Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants, he advises the aerospace industry and national governments on finance, insurance, market analysis, project management and launch services. This includes a feasibility study for an Australian spaceport, satellite valuation, and analysis of the regional applications for a new satellite-based service. Kirby earlier created a new aerospace division

within a major insurer (GIO Space), managed the commercial operations of a project to create a breakthrough service to extend the profitable working lives of communications satellites (Orbital Recovery Ltd in the UK), and is Chairman of the Board of the National Space Society, one of the world’s leading space advocacy organizations.

Prof Steven Freeland is Dean of the School of Law and Professor of International Law at Western Sydney University, Australia where he specializes in International Criminal Law, Commercial Aspects of Space Law, Public International Law and Human Rights Law. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna; Permanent Visiting Professor at the iCourts Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen; Member of Faculty at the London Institute of Space Policy and Law;

Visiting Professor at Université Toulouse1 Capitole; Adjunct Professor at University of Adelaide; Associate Member at the Centre for Research in Air and Space Law, McGill University; and a former Marie Curie Fellow (2013-2014). He has been an expert assessor for Government Research Councils in Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, South Africa, Hong Kong, and has taught at Universities in over 20 countries.

He has also been a Visiting Professional within the Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and a Special Advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry in matters related to the ICC. He represents the Australian Government at various United Nations Conferences and Committee Meetings, and has advised the Australian Commonwealth Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, and the New Zealand Government, on issues related to the regulation of space activities. Among other appointments, he is a Director and foundational member of the Directorate of Studies of the Paris-based International Institute of Space Law, and a member of the Space Law Committee of the London-based International Law Association.

He sits on the Editorial Board of the Australian International Law Journal, the Canada-based Annals of Air and Space Law, the German-based German Journal of Air and Space Law, the China-based Space Law Review, the London-based ROOM Space Journal, the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia, Planetary Science, and on the Advisory Board of the India-based Asian Journal of Air and Space Law, the Belarusian Yearbook of International Law and the UK-based Journal of Philosophy of International Law, as well as a series of books entitled Studies in Space Law. He is also Co-Editor of Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals, a long-established series of casebooks annotating the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor.

He has authored approximately 300 publications on various aspects of International Law and has been invited to present over 900 expert commentaries by national and international media outlets worldwide on a wide range of legal and geopolitical issues.


Centre Grant FundingThe following table covers funding received by ACSER during 2017. In addition to the below, revenue was raised via event registration fees and sponsorships relating to Cubesat2017, OEMF2017 and ASRC2017 (see Financial Report on opposite page for finer detail).

Grant/Project Project Period

Research Topic Partners GrantingOrganisation

Awarded Amount

Compatibility & Technology Demonstrator

2015 to 2017

The development of new techniques to process multi frequency time difference of arrival and spoofer data sets to support the geolocation of GPS RF interference for defence operations.

GPsat Systems Australia, Defence Science and Technology Organisation

Defence Science and Technology Organisation $300,000

ARC Discovery ProjectDP150103866

2015 to 2017

Designing Radiation-Tolerant Reconfigurable Systems for Space

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Australian Research Council $340,300

ARC Linkage ProjectLP140100328

2015 to 2017

Rapid Recovery from Radiation-induced Errors in Reconfigurable Hardware

General Dynamics New Zealand


ARC Linkage Project

2015 to2019

Protecting Critical Transport Infrastructure using Hybrid Approaches for Interference and Spoofer Detection and Localisation

GPSat Systems, University of Adelaide


Biarri 2016 - 2018 Service agreement for post-launch support of space-borne GPS Receiver DST Group Defence Science &

Technology Group $25,000

QB50

2013 - 2015(carried through 2018)

An International Network of 50 CubeSats UNSW UNSW $75,000

Satellite Innovation

2016 - 2017(carried through 2018)

Broad scope satellite innovation and outreach events UNSW UNSW $25,000

RAPID32016-2018 (awarded in 2015)

Preliminary development of a propulsion and GN&C subsystem capable of providing orbital correction and de-orbiting manoeuvres on a CubeSat

ZARM, GermanyGo8 - Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme

$20,118

Silverstar 2017 Synthesising antenna apertures in space UNSW Faculty of Engineering $30,000

Priming Grant 2017-2018 Low-cost Rapidly Deployable High Altitude Balloon-borne Radar

ECHOES Technologies, Italy

Australian Academic of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) / DIIS Global Connections Fund

$7,000

Priming Grant 2017-2018 Rocket Launch from Balloons Gilmour Space

Australian Academic of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) / DIIS Global Connections Fund

$7,000

NATO Grant 2017-2020 High Altitude Balloon-Borne Radar University of Pisa

NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme Shared Grant

$252,454

Financial Report

Report provided by Cheryl Brown Approved with amendments by Hanny Lie and Rebecca King (Analysts, Budget & Management Reporting, Research Finance) 22 May 2018

ACSER - Aus Ctr Space Engineering Res

2017

Jan - Dec

Refreshed:

Aus Ctr Space Engineering Res

Statement of Financial Performance 2017 2016 DifferenceFor the Year Ended December 2017 Note $'000 $'000 $'000 %

Research Revenue: 1 370 457 (87) -19%Donations & Bequest - Draw downs 42 47 (5) -11%UNSW Contributions 10 7 3 53%Faculty Contributions 2 7 35 (28) -80%Other Restricted Revenue 3 - - - - Commercial Activity - Fees for Service - - - - Sundry Other Revenue 11 48 (37) -76%

Total Revenue 441 594 (154) -26%

Salaries, Oncosts and other staff costs 360 519 (158) -31%Scholarship Stipends 5 26 (22) -83%Contract & Consulting Services 1 0 0 120%Repairs and Maintenance - - - - Consumables 21 17 4 26%Travel 44 50 (7) -13%Equipment Non Capitalised 0 - 0 - Entertainment 2 8 (6) -72%Marketing 5 1 4 378%Miscellaneous Expenses (13) 72 (85) -118%

Total Non-People Costs 65 175 (111) -63%

Total Expenses 425 694 (269) -39%

TOTAL CONTRIBUTION - SURPLUS/(DEFICIT) $ 15 $ (100) 115 -115%

Depreciation 16 16 (0) -3%

SURPLUS / (DEFICIT) after Depreciation $ (0) $ (116) 116 -100%

Cashflow Funded Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) - - - -

NOTES:1 Revenue in Advance will be noted in Creditors & Other Liabilities.

Research Revenue generated (cash basis). $ 359 $ 471 (112) Category 1 Research Revenue therein 213 310 (97)

2 Faculty Contributions includes Operating funds allocated by theUNSW budget.

3 Other Research Revenue includes internal fund transfers.

4 Restricted Funds - Cash at year end $ 209 $ 143 66

5 Funds available in Division of Advancement $ 39 $ 47 (8)

REVENUE

EXPENSE

Entity

Year

Month Cycle

22-May-18 11:50:01 AM


Publications

Publications

Journal ArticlesStanaway, R., Roberts, C.A., Rizos, C., Donnelly, N., Crook, C., & Haasdyk, J., (2017) Defining a local reference frame using a plate motion model and deformation model. In “Reference Frames for Applications in Geoscience (REFAG2014)”, T. van Dam (Ed.), IAG Symposia Series Vol.146, 147-154, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-319-45629-4, REFAG conf. held Luxembourg, 13-17 October 2014.

V.T. Tran, N.C. Shivaramaiah, T.D. Nguyen, E.P. Glennon, A.G. Dempster, “GNSS receiver implementations to mitigate the effects of commensurate sampling frequencies on DLL code tracking”, GPS Solutions, 7 December 2017, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-017-0690-x

V.T. Tran, N.C. Shivaramaiah, T.D. Nguyen, J.W. Cheong, E.P. Glennon & A.G. Dempster, “Generalised theory on the effects of sampling frequency on GNSS code tracking”, Journal of Navigation, 28 November 2017, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0373463317000741

Pai Wang. Ediz Cetin, Andrew G. Dempster, Yongqing Wang, Siliang Wu, “Time Frequency and Statistical Inference Based Interference Detection Technique for GNSS Receivers”, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol 53, no 6, pp 2865 - 2876, 2017, DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2017.2718278

Saydam S, Shishko R, Fradet R, Do S, Tapia Cortez C, Dempster AG, Coulton J, “Mars Colony In Situ Resource Utilization: An Integrated Architecture and Economics Model”, Acta Astronautica, 22 May 2017

Biswas, S.K., Qiao, L. & Dempster, A.G., “Effect of PDOP on performance of Kalman Filters for GNSS-based space vehicle position estimation”, GPS Solutions, 2017 pp. 1-9 doi:10.1007/s10291-017-0621-x

S. Biswas; L. Qiao; A. Dempster, “A Novel a priori State Computation Strategy for the Unscented Kalman Filter to Improve Computational Efficiency”, in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , vol.62, no.4, pp.1852 - 1864, April 2017. doi: 10.1109/TAC.2016.2599291

Vinh T. Tran; Thuan D. Nguyen; Nagaraj C. Shivaramaiah; Andrew G. Dempster, “A Dynamically Configurable Decimator for GNSS Baseband Receiver”, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol 53, no 1, pp296-309, 2017, DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2017.265029

Choy, S., Kuckartz, J., Dempster, A.G., Rizos C., & Higgins M., 2017. Satellite-based augmentation systems in Australia. GPS Solutions, 21(3), 835-848, DOI: 10.1007/s10291-016-0569-2.

Jiang, W., Li, Y., Rizos, C., & Yang, L., 2017. A multi-sensor navigation system based on an adaptive fault-tolerant GOF algorithm. IEEE Transactions of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 18(1), 103-113, DOI:10.1109/TITS.2016.2562700.

Jiang, W., Li, Y., Rizos, C., & Yang, L., 2017. Seamless indoor-outdoor navigation based on GNSS, INS and terrestrial ranging techniques. Journal of Navigation, 11, 1-22.

Yang, L., Li, B., Shen, Y., & Rizos, C., 2017. An extension of internal reliability analysis regarding to separability analysis. Journal of Surv. Eng., 143(3), DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)SU.1943-5428.0000220.

Yang, L., Li, B., Li, H., Rizos, C., & Shen, Y., 2017. The influence of improper stochastic modeling of Beidou pseudoranges on system reliability. Advances in Space Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2017.05.035.

Zhou, Z., Li, Y., Fu, C., & Rizos, C., 2017. Least-squares vector machine based Kalman filtering for GNSS navigation with dynamic model real-time correction. Journal of IET – Radar, Sonar & Navigation, 11(3), 528-538, DOI: 10.1049/iet-rsn.2016.0422.

Wang P., E. Cetin, A. G. Dempster, Y. Q. Wang, and S. L. Wu, “Time Frequency and Statistical Inference Based Interference Detection Technique for GNSS Receivers”, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 2865 – 2876, Dec. 2017.

Shishko, R., Fradet, R., Do, S., Saydam, S., Tapia Cortez, C., Dempster, A.G. and Coulton, J. (2017) “Mars colony in situ resource utilization: an integrated architecture and economics model”

Book ChaptersCetin E., Diessel O., Li T., Ambrose J. A., Fisk T., Parameswaran S. and Dempster A. G., “Overview and Investigation of SEU Detection and Recovery Approaches for FPGA-based Heterogeneous Systems”, in FPGAs and Parallel Architectures for Aerospace Applications, Soft Errors and Fault-Tolerant Design, pp. 33 – 46, ISBN 978-3-319-14351-4, Springer, 2016.

Yu K., Rizos C. and Dempster A. G., “Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry for Ocean and Land Applications”, chapter in Remotely Sensed Data Characterization, Classification, and Accuracies, Prasad S. Thenkabail ed, CRC Press, 2016, pp 493-507.


Refereed Conference PapersBenjamin J Southwell and Andrew G Dempster. Simulating Delay Doppler Maps of GNSS Signals Reflected Off the Ocean Surface. In Australian Space Research Conference (ASRC), 2017.

M.M.Rahman, V. Moghtadaiee, and A. G. Dempster, “Design of Fingerprinting for Indoor Localization Using AM Radio Signals,” in Proc IEEE Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN), Sapporo, Japan, Sep.2017,pp.1-7

Benjamin J Southwell and Andrew G Dempster. Orbit and Constellation Design Considerations for GNSS-R Receivers. In 68th International Astronautical Congress (IAC),September, 2017.

Harima, K., Choy, S., & Rizos, C., 2018. Compact multi-GNSS PPP corrections messages for transmission through a 250 bps channel. IGNSS2018 Symp., 7-9 February, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, peer-reviewed, http://www.ignss2018.unsw.edu.au/sites/ignss2018/files/u80/Papers/IGNSS2018_paper_34.pdf.

Imparato, D., El-Mowafy, A., Rizos, C., & Wang, J., 2018. Vulnerabilities in SBAS and RTK positioning in Intelligent Transport Systems: An overview. IGNSS2018 Symp., 7-9 February, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, peer-reviewed, http://www.ignss2018.unsw.edu.au/sites/ignss2018/files/u80/Papers/IGNSS2018_paper_10.pdf.

Cetin E., C. Wijenayake, V. Sethu and E. Ambikairajah, “A Flipped Mode Approach to Teaching an Electronic System Design Course”, IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE), pp. 223-228, Dec. 2017.

Nguyen T, E. Cetin and O. Diessel, “Scheduling Voter Checks to Detect Configuration Memory Errors in FPGA-based TMR Systems”, IEEE Symposium on Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI and Nanotechnology Systems (DFT), Oct. 2017.

Gong L., A. Kroh, D. Agiakatsikas, T. Nguyen, E. Cetin and O. Diessel, “Reliable SEU Monitoring and Recovery using a Programmable Configuration Controller”, International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL), Sept. 2017.

Lee G., D. Agiakatsikas, T. Wu, E. Cetin and O. Diessel, “TLegUp: A TMR Code Generation Tool for SRAM-Based FPGA Applications Using HLS”, IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM), pp. 129 – 132, May 2017.

Nguyen T, E. Cetin and O. Diessel, “Scheduling Considerations for Voter Checking in TMR-MER Systems”, IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM), May 2017.

Shishko, R, Fradet, R, Saydam, S., Tapia Cortez, C., Dempster, A., Coulton, J. and Do, S. (2017) “An integrated economics model for ISRU in support of a Mars colony - initial results report”. Space Resources Utilization: Resource Enabled Mission Concepts. AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition 2017, 9-13 Jan 2017, Grapevine, Texas

Abstract-refereed Conference PapersDorrington, S., Olsen, J., Kinkaid, N., “Architecture for an Asteroid Mining Industry”, 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Guadalajara Mexico, 26-30 September 2016. IAC-16-D4.5.1

Tapia Cortez, C., Saydam, S., Coulton, J. Shishko, R. (2017) WEM3 Off Earth Mining Model. SME Denver.

Dello-Iacovo, M., Anderson, R.C. and Saydam, S. 2017, A novel method of measuring seismic velocity in off-Earth conditions: Implications for future research, 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The Woodlands, Texas.

Dello-Iacovo, M., Anderson, R.C. and Saydam, S. 2017. The effects of the space environment on seismic data collection. 68th International Astronautical Congress Adelaide, Australia. 25 – 29 September 2017

Casanova, S., Saydam, S. Mining For Water On Mars – A GIS Approach To Conducting Pre-Site Selection Feasibility Studies. 68th International Astronautical Congress Adelaide, Australia. 25 – 29 September 2017

Opinion“Yes, Australia will have a space agency. What does this mean? Experts respond”, Andrew Dempster, Duncan Blake, Graziella Caprarelli, The Conversation, September 25, 2017

“Preventing Murray-Darling water theft: a space agency can help Australia manage federal resources”, Andrew Dempster, The Conversation, September 20, 2017

“Ice mined on Mars could provide water for humans exploring space”, Sophia Casanova, Andrew Dempster, Serkan Saydam, The Conversation, September 15, 2017

“Just one small step for Australia’s space industry when a giant leap is needed”, Andrew Dempster, The Conversation, July 18, 2017

“Australia’s back in the satellite business with a new launch”, Andrew Dempster, The Conversation, April 18, 2017

“Understanding the Global Navigation Satellite System”. Ben Southwell, Openforum, 22 November, 2017

Invited LecturesRIZOS, C., 2017. “Precise Trustworthy Positioning – Now and in the Future”. Pres. at ISNSW Australia Day Seminars, Sydney, Australia, 24-25 January.

RIZOS, C., 2017. “Precise GNSS Positioning – More than Geodesy, More than Surveying”. Pres. at Chinese Academy of Surveying & Mapping, Beijing, P.R. China, 17 April.

RIZOS, C., 2017. “Precise GNSS Positioning – Where have we come from? Where are we going? “ Pres. at State Key Lab for Rail Traffic Control & Safety, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, P.R. China, 17 April.

RIZOS, C., 2017. ”GNSS Going Forward – 10 Questions That Need Answering”. Keynote pres. at European Navigation Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland, 9-12 May.

RIZOS, C., 2017. “Do We Have PNT Capability for the 4th Industrial Revolution?” Keynote pres. at IPNT(KGS) Conf., Jeju Island, South Korea, 1-3 November.

RIZOS, C., 2017. “GNSS Going Forward – Some Questions That Need Answering”. Keynote pres. at NGRC Seminar, Jeju Island, South Korea, 3 November.

RIZOS, C., 2017. GNSS Going Forward – Some Questions That Need Answering. Keynote pres. at NGRC Seminar, Jeju Island, South Korea, 3 November.

RIZOS, C., 2017. The Future and GNSS – Ten Questions That We Require Answers To. Keynote pres. at IS-GNSS conf., Hong Kong, SAR, 10-13 December.

RIZOS, C., 2017. “Is Our GNSS Capability Good Enough for Tomorrow’s New Demands? “Pres. at HK Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, SAR, 14 December.

CETIN, E.,2017. “Towards reliable FPGA-based satellite systems - The RUSH experiment”, CubeSat Innovation Workshop, Sydney, Australia (2017)

UNSW Australia

UNSW Sydney, NSW, 2015

AUSTRALIA

T: +61 (2) 9385 6890

E: [email protected]

W: acser.unsw.edu.au

f

@ACSERUNSW

ACSER.UNSW

CRICOS Provider Code 00098G

ACSER UNSW

Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) · 2018-08-23 · ACSER Annual Report 2017...

Documents

Transcript of Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) · 2018-08-23 · ACSER Annual Report 2017...