Space hunt begins as WA’s Binar-1 mission takes next giant leap
By MySecurity Media
24 | Australia in Space Magazine
W
estern Australia’s homegrown spacecraft, Binar-1, has been shot into the vacuum of space- deployed into Low Earth Orbit from the International Space Station (ISS), five weeks after blasting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Director of Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC), John Curtin Distinguished Professor Phil Bland, joined SSTC staff and students yesterday to watch a live feed as Binar-1 was placed into the tiny airlock of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo on the ISS and sent into space. Professor Bland explained WA’s first homegrown spacecraft is now on a journey to make first contact before testing critical systems, collecting data, and taking photographs from 400 kilometres above Earth. “The launch of WA’s first homegrown spacecraft on the Space-X rocket was exciting, but this moment and the coming
few days are the really crucial points for our Binar Space Program and the team of staff and students who designed and built Binar-1 from scratch,” Professor Bland said. “We can’t wait to hear Binar-1’s ‘first words’ from space – that will be the time when we will be able to declare the success of our first space-mission and put us firmly on the path to proving that our technology can deliver. “That contact and the protocol testing that follow will set us up to achieve our aim of sending six more satellites into space over the next 18 months, and our ultimate goal of taking WA to the Moon by 2025.” Binar Program Manager, Ben Hartig said with Binar-1 now safely in orbit, the team is focussed on listening out for her ‘heartbeat’. “We built Binar-1 to communicate using Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio signals which is the backbone of an exciting opportunity to engage both the ham radio
