We're less than two months away from our annual Australian Space Summit and Exhibition.

The two-day event will be the biggest yet, featuring headliners including Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and the commander overseeing the US Space Force's Indo-Pacific team.

Hosting the event is Alan Duffy, a professor in astrophysics and pro-vice-chancellor of flagship initiatives at Swinburne University.

He joins the show this week to discuss his incredible career and the biggest issues in the sector this year.

An astronomer from Curtin University discovered 49 new galaxies from just three hours of operating the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

Dr Marcin Glowacki was leading an international collaboration aiming to study the star-forming gas in a single radio galaxy.

However, while the team didn't discover the star-forming gas in the galaxy they were studying, they instead uncovered other galaxies when inspecting the data later.

This week, Dr Glowacki tells the story behind his incredible finding.

A new industry-wide group dedicated to promoting diversity in the space sector has launched with the support of the Australian Space Agency and Defence Space Command. The Australian Space Diversity Alliance (ASDA) aims to help senior leaders and minimise the barriers that marginalised groups face. This week, two of its co-founders, Mei He and Dr Elise Stephenson, talk about the initiative and what they hope it will achieve.

This month, Space Connect reported how researchers from the University of Sydney discovered that Earth's interactions with Mars can drive deep sea circulation here on Earth. The teams used geological records of the deep sea to discover a link between the orbits of the two planets and past global warming patterns. In this episode, co-author Professor Dietmar Müller talks through the research and the unique collaboration with Sorbonne University in Paris. He also discusses what comes next and how researchers can use their discovery to understand better future climate outcomes.

Late last year, the US and Australia signed a landmark deal that will allow more US rockets to blast off from Australian spaceports. However, the full text of the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) was only recently released to Australian industry for its feedback. In this episode, Joel Lisk, a research associate in space law at Flinders University, talks through what the deal means. He also explains how it differs from similar TSAs agreed between the US and other nations.

Helen Tung left her career as a London litigator to become an international space lawyer based in the UAE. In this special episode presented by Space Connect's sister brand, Lawyers Weekly, Jerome Doraisamy talks to Tung, who is also a College of Law lecturer in international arbitration.

The pair discuss her move into the space industry, how the sector is rapidly growing, and her work with start-ups.

Finally, they examine why the barriers to entry are lower for women moving into space law because the sector is so new.

Craig Jones is the deputy director of business incubation at the University of South Australia. His job is to work with start-ups and help them expand and thrive. He tells host Adam Thorn how hard it is for young organisations to go from having a great idea to commercialising it. The pair also talk about the growth of our local industry since it began to rapidly expand.

SmartSat CRC is a collaboration between universities and research organisations that partner with industry. Funded by the federal government, it has helped pioneer projects as varied as monitoring crops from space, managing bushfires, and even working with NASA to develop rescue beacons in space. In this episode, the organisation's CEO, Professor Andy Koronios, discusses its work as well as how the Australian space industry has expanded and evolved over the years.

CyanoSat is the first Australian-designed and built hyperspectral imager designed to monitor water quality on Earth.

Hyperspectral imaging analyses the composition of materials and is being used by the CSIRO to differentiate harmful cyanobacteria from other algae in coastal and inland water bodies.

In this episode, Dr Stephen Gensemer, who led the project, talks about how advancements in space can improve life on Earth.

The launch of the University of Melbourne's SpIRIT mission last month was a milestone moment for Australia's space industry. A unique collaboration between industry and academia, the nanosatellite will search for gamma rays using scientific instruments created by the Italian Space Agency. In this episode, the professor leading the project, Michele Trenti, talks through the nerve-racking moments before launch – and what happens next.