SpaceBase Podcast

An interview with Alexandar Majstorovic,  co-founder and CEO of OutThere Astronautics, a student-led startup based in Auckland focusing on development of optical, intersatellite communications for cubesats.  

Alex is working on a Medical degree and has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. His unorthodox background has led him to founding a startup that has won multiple awards including the latest Velocity Challenge for best innovation.  Today we’ll talk to him about his startup OutThere Astronautics, how to start a space company in New Zealand, and  what drives him to the space industry and beyond.

Resources
OutThere Astronautics

Auckland Programme for Space Systems (APSS)
Tepunaha Atea Auckland Space Institute
Velocity Challenge
Aerosopace New Zealand

Startup Tools
Lean Canvas
How to Fly a Horse by Kevin Ashton

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through the SpaceBase Open Collective. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

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An interview with Mekdim Tesfaye, founder and CEO of Oasis Orbital Systems, an aerospace startup based in Christchurch focusing on development of an innovative orbital live streaming platform. He is also a marketing specialist for Aerospace New Zealand.

Mekdim has a Bachelors of Commerce from the University of Canterbury, and a level 3 Certificate in Astronautical and Aeronautical Engineering from the Air New Zealand Aviation Institute.

Today we’ll talk to him about his journey into the space industry through combining his aeronautical and business experience, as well as his vision for virtual space tourism through Oasis Orbital.

Resources
Sample video of Orbital Oasis baloon flight:

The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett
Zero to One by Peter Thiele
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

Aerosopace New Zealand
Aerospace Summit 2023
Startme Up Mentorship Programme (applications for this year closing in April 2023)

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with Jess Covich, founder  and CEO of Engineering Dreams, an aerospace consultancy based in Auckland focusing on providing professional services with top tier resources to the space industry.  Jess has  more than 15 years experience in senior level technology consulting and business development roles in New Zealand. 

In this interview, we talk to her about her business and sales experience being critical elements for pivoting into the space industry, and why she thinks it’s the industry to be involved in today.

Resources
Engineering Dreams
Space Base NZ Space Directory
Directory of space related organizatons within NZ

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with Nelson Smith, co-founder of Aquila, a tech company based in Auckland focused on wireless energy infrastructure for terrestrial and space applications.  Nelson did his bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Mechatronics and Product Development at the University of Auckland and Massey University.  He has worked as a Guidance,Navigation and Control Engineer for Rocketlab and has been involved in multiple engineering, software, and automated projects in the past decade. 

In this interview we learn from Nelson how developing a portfolio of engineering projects, coupled with some startup smarts can accelerate your career in the space industry.

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with the host, Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom.

Emeline is Co-Founder and CEO of SpaceBase based in New Zealand.  Emeline is also part of the Ceres Robotics team and a Co-Founder of International Space Consultants.  She is an Institute of Space Commerce Fellow, an Edmund Hillary Fellow, and is a member of the Associate Editorial Board for the New Space Journal.

 Emeline has BS and MS degrees in Physics and Earth and Space Science.  She is an alumni of the International Space University.  She has worked for space startups including Space Adventures, Odyssey Moon, Moon Express and Orbital Astronautics.  Emeline is co-author of the book “Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Space Flight”.

 In this interview Emeline talks about the motivation for moving to New Zealand and creating SpaceBase Limited to help catalyse space innovation ecosystems in developing and emerging countries from New Zealand.

Resources:
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Space for Planet Earth  Challenge competitions
Next challege kicks off on 18 May 2023.  More info coming soon!

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with Christian Thaler-Wolski,  a startup advisor, business developer, and angel investor focused on Spacetech. Previously, Christian worked in venture capital in Europe. Prior to his investor role he had a five-year career in technical product sales and key account management at ORACLE, a global leader in enterprise software. 

Christian is a native of Germany and graduated from the International Space University’s Souther Hemisphere Space Studies program in 2020. He has degrees in Economics and also a graduated with an MBA degree at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, in 2006. 

Christian moved to Adelaide in 2019 and subsepquently co-founded the ISU alumni association for Australia and New Zealand as well as the ISU Adelaide Conference, held every year online for the whole Indo-Pacific region. 

In this interview we will hear from Christian what it takes to become a space investor , and why investing in the space industry is at an inflection point and growth phase today.  He will also talk about how the ISU programme has changed his career and his current initiatives to help grow the space industry in the region through conferences.

 

Resources:
ISU Adelaide Space Conference - 3-4 February, 2023
An Indo Pacific region conference focused this year on Challenges and Opportunities in Commercial Space.  RSVP today!

Internationa Space University Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Programme (SHSSP23).   A 5-week multidisciplinary space programme delivered in Adelaide, Australia (16 Jan - 17 February 2023).

Podcast:
Space Business Podcast - hosted by Raphael Roettgen

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with Dr. Yvette Perrott, Senior Lecturer at the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences at University of Victoria Wellington.  Yvette has degrees in BA, BSc and BSc( with Hons)majoring in Physics, Italian and Spanish. She completed her PhD in the Cavendish Astrophysics Group in 2013 on a Rutherford PhD Scholarship and was awarded a Trinity College Junior Research Fellowship in the same year. She was also awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2017. Her area of research is on galaxy clusters as cosmological probes for the origins of the universe.

In this interview we will learn about how her research in galaxy clusters could unlock the origins of the universe.  She also talks about a new multidisciplinary space undergraduate degree programme at University of Victoria starting up next year.

Resources:
Open Stax astronomy - extensive repository of astronomy topics

NASA Skyview - SkyView is a Virtual Observatory on the Net generating images of any part of the sky at wavelengths in all regimes from Radio to Gamma-Ray.

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

Support the show

An interview with Rahul Rughani,  systems engineer for Arkisys, a company building an autonomous research outpost in low Earth orbit.  Rahul has a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree in Mechanical engineering from McGill University, with a concentration in Aeronautics. He also holds both PhD and Master of Science degrees in Astronautical engineering from the University of Southern California. His specialization is on orbital optimization techniques for spacecraft swarms. The focus of his research is to enable in-orbit manufacturing, satellite aggregation, and close-quarters robotic inspection of spacecraft, using swarms of small and medium sized satellites in Earth orbit. He has worked as a systems engineer on CubeSat projects and has performed in-depth analysis of past, present, and future methods of spacecraft Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) through funding provided by DARPA. 

In this interview we will learn about how swarm technologies can someday build huge infrastructures in space, help with space debris, and create factories on orbit, the Moon and Mars.

Resources:
Space Mission Analysis and Design by Wiley Larson
Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students by Howard Curtis.

SpaceNews, space news website

Science Fiction Books:
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Expanse Book Series by James S. Corey (Also a TV series on Amazon)

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with Daniel Mackisack. Founder of Celestial Commons - a network devoted to improving public interest and representation in space - ensuring that the journey and the benefits of development are shared by all.  Daniel is a kiwi presently living in Berlin.  A writer, researcher, diplomat, and serial founder, He holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science, and a Masters in Anthropology and Sociology.  
In this interview we will learn how Daniel 's passion for science fiction and his experience building social movements and development projects has led to his current activities and projects in the space sector.

Resources:
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show

An interview with Randy Pollock, Chief Scientist and Engineer for Space at the Robertson Research Institute at Victoria University,Wellington,  where he is working to adapt high temperature superconductor technologies for space applications.  Prior to moving to New Zealand, he was an Instrument Manager and Systems Engineer for NASA Jet Propulsion Laborary.  He had worked on numerous payload missions and spacecraft for NASA for over two decades including EMIT, CloudSat, and SHERLOC for the Mars Perseverance rover.   

Resources:

von Karman Lecture Series - aims to bring the excitement of JPL’s missions, instruments and other technologies

Hosted by: Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, Co-Founder and CEO, SpaceBase
Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons (3.0)

If you like our work, please consider donating to SpaceBase through The Gift Trust or RSF Social Finance (for US charitable donations) and indicate "SpaceBase" gift account. Or be a SpaceBase Patreon sponsor!

Support the show