Working in the space sector

Wawata – seeing ourselves in space is the theme of this collection.

​

Aotearoa has a growing aerospace industry and it needs young people to take up the challenge.

​

The cool thing about space is that it goes way beyond the jobs we usually associate with rockets.

​

Meet some of the people working in aerospace and then see if you have what it takes to join them!

The following resources highlight the diversity of roles that exist in New Zealand's growing place in space - whether it is a space-related job or deepening the understand of tātai arorangi.

​

​

The following activity introduces ākonga to 10 people who work in space-related/supported fields. It is designed to foster blue-sky thinking about how and where tamariki and rangatahi might see themselves in the space industry. It supports science and communication literacies.

These activities offer a taste of some types of thinking that happens in the space sector:

• Creating a space treaty – for writers, thinkers and future policy developers
• Making digital space debris clean-up games – for software engineers and computer scientists
• Interpreting observations from satellite images – for people interested in looking after te taiao
• Validating remote sensing observations – for modellers and computer scientists

Get a taste of engineering, building things and problem solving:

• Make a model CubeSat and micro:bit sun sensor
• Build a 3D satellite model
• Micro:bit and space projects
• Build a satellite for a mission

Check out some of the space-related industries in Aotearoa:

​

What goes up to space – satellites and micro laboratories

What we can see from space – remote sensing and greenhouse gases

How to send things to space – rockets and remotely piloted aerospace planes

How to keep things safe and working in space

How to get things down from space – digital satellite data and spent rocket parts.

Meet some other scientists whose work intersects with the space sector:

​

• Dr Allan McInnes is an electrical and electronics engineer who worked on the B-2 stealth bomber and the Mars exploration rovers.
• Dr Wolfgang Rack and Dr Adrian McDonald both use satellites in their icy fieldwork in Antarctica.
• Kelvin Barnsdale’s expertise in radio frequencies and electronics led to work on Space Shuttle missions and designing GPS systems.
• Warwick Holmes is an avionics systems engineer who helped to build, test and launch the Rosetta spacecraft.
• Avinash Rao spent 6 years at Rocket Lab and became CEO at Argo Navis Aerospace.

Communications plays a key role in the aerospace industry and the sciences in general!

​

If writing or media are your thing - find out how to use your interest in in the space sector!