The Melbourne Space Program (MSP), a charity focussing on developing university students to become Australian space industry leaders, and Hydrix, a leading product design and engineering consulting company, have today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the development of space-related projects.
The MOU will better enable the MSP and Hydrix to jointly explore opportunities to collaborate in space industry related design and engineering, and provide mentoring of MSP student members including:
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providing access to Hydrix laboratories and facilities for MSP projects
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providing technical expertise and mentorship from Hydrix personnel to MSP
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jointly seeking collaborative opportunities and initiatives to help grow the Victorian and Australian space industries
The primary goal of the MSP is to develop an Australian pipeline of job-ready graduates for the technology sectors by providing real-world experience and training through the implementation of space-related project challenges and opportunities to students. University students can join the MSP at the beginning of their degree and are exposed to solving technical and corporate challenges in a best practice environment. This collaborative work environment enables students to manage the end-to-end delivery of complex projects such as the Australian ACRUX-1, a compact, cube-shaped nano-satellite planned to launch in June 2019.
Andrew Wetherell, Managing Director of the Melbourne Space Program said, “this announcement is another significant step forward for MSP as we forge important industry partnerships. With their product design and innovation capabilities, particularly in Critical Systems, Hydrix will provide students with fantastic access to complex equipment, and design and engineering know-how, enabling them to grow their experience, and successfully deliver this first significant satellite project”.
The MOU formalizes an existing informal collaboration between the MSP and Hydrix. As a product development company with proven design, engineering, test and manufacturing capabilities, Hydrix personnel are already collaborating and guiding MSP team members on key elements of the ACRUX-1 development, particularly around engineering design reviews and assessing thermal performance of the satellite.
Peter Lewis, the CEO of Hydrix said “We are incredibly proud to be involved in this exciting initiative. Our team is already committed to helping students develop through this space exploration program which is a great fit with our internal culture of innovation. We are looking forward to the successful deployment of this first modern Australian satellite project, and more broadly in helping to grow experience and capability of young engineers in Australian space exploration”.
The launch window launch for the ACRUX-1 is scheduled to open on Tuesday, 25th June. For more details on ACRUX-1 please click here.