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I never thought I’d wake up every morning and get to help build ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog’s first ever lunar rover.

I’ve been passionate about space for as long as I can remember, but ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog didn’t have a united and thriving space industry until 2018 when the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogn Space Agency was established. Now I’m the lead engineer working to send a rover to the moon and supporting ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog’s world leading space research – it’s a dream come true.

I grew up in country South ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog, in Berri and then Murray Bridge. When I was five or six, I remember thinking space was this big, amazing thing beyond our reach. Then I learned that we can actually send robots and people up there to work and live, and it blew my mind.

"At 10 years old I remember telling my parents I wanted to work in space. They suggested that maybe I should be an engineer – I thought ‘that sounds good… I wonder what an engineer is!’"

It was an easy decision to study at the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog of Adelaide because Andy Thomas, ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog’s first member of NASA’s elite astronaut corps, went there. I was following in the footsteps of one of my heroes.

"I’m glad I did because I loved every minute of university life at UoA - from learning about astrophysics in the classroom, to sitting on the Barr Smith Lawns with my friends at lunch, to the legendary engineering pub crawls across Adelaide."

I even joined the UoA Hockey Club and loved it so much that I ended up playing for the UoA Blacks for about 18 years! I will never forget the camaraderie. Travelling around ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog with the Intervarsity team to compete in the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog Games was one of the highlights of my time at university, and I still play hockey now.

But university was also very challenging for me. I had to work very hard – hours and hours of study – to get up to the same level as everyone else.

Since finishing my PhD, I’ve worked for an amazing ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogn company, Nova Systems, on so many cool projects, like helping a Japanese Space Exploration Agency spacecraft return a capsule containing an asteroid sample to the Woomera Test Range right here in South ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog.

Funnily enough, I now work right across the road from the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog of Adelaide – at the SmartSat CRC headquarters and next to the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogns Space Agency at Lot Fourteen. There are so many possibilities for the future of the growing ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogn space sector and I’m very fortunate to be able to do the work I love, in a city I love.

"There’s a role for everyone in space, so follow that passion because now you can do it in ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog, right here in Adelaide."

Space has been my passion for my entire life. Today’s young people have so many opportunities available to them now as ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog’s space sector gains momentum. My dream is to help put ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog’s space sector on the international stage and to inspire the next generation, and that really gets my heart pumping.