So You Want to Start a Space Technology Company?

The Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) at UNSW Sydney aims to develop space capabilities relevant to local needs through research & education, while also providing national leadership for Australian space engineering research by fostering collaborations between researchers, industry and government.

Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, UNSW

Lessons Learned from the Trenches of Silicon Valley, the Machine Shop and Inside the Vacuum Tank

Electrical Engineering Building (G17)

ACSER Seminar Series

ACSER Seminars featuring Guest Speakers as well as the latest research from our students and research team.

<p>Joel Sercel is a proven space technology pioneer and team leader whose technical expertise spans space mission design, space propulsion, satellite design, architectural design, and systems engineering. As founding President and CEO of TransAstra, he runs an agile company where young engineers are inspired and empowered to build, test, break, and bust through technical limits and mature innovations at breakneck speed. He is a seven-time winner of the prestigious NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, including the first ever Phase 3 NIAC contract, and has more than a dozen patents issued and more than a dozen more pending in the areas of space resources and in-space transportation technology. TransAstra has been more successful with NIAC than any other organization in translating the technology to private space ventures and advancing the TRL of the tech to readiness and use. His expertise and leadership have been sought out by world class organizations including NASA, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, the US intelligence community, and the US Air Force. Joel’s PhD is from Caltech in plasma physics and space propulsion. He spent 14 years at NASA JPL where he served in nearly all the technical roles and conceived the first ion propulsion system used in deep space missions (Dawn) to a comet and asteroids Ceres and Vesta. Joel was a member of the FAST for the Asteroid Redirect Mission and was the chief engineer for the Air Force on a 22$ Billion project. Sercel served as the founding CTO of Momentus Space before returning to TransAstra to fulfill his lifelong dream of working to establish a thriving in-space economy that will offer unbound potential for future generations.</p>

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