Successfully launched 29 June, 2018, and installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2018, the DESIS spectrometer has been operating flawlessly since.

The partners are Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE) & German Aerospace Centre (DLR). The PPP venture returned the start up investment after two years of operation.

I secured official La Trobe University (LTU) participation, via subcontract from the DLR, to provide mission-critical on-board capability in the form of control systems to manage the mass memory system and surrounding interfaces both HW and SW.

From 2015 until 2018, under my directive as program manager, the La Trobe University team of engineers designed and delivered the required control systems in accordance with European Space Agency ECSS requirements. I then worked with all global partners to ensure technical and managerial compliance throughout the space mission.

Through my identifcation of the TRL 3-5 capability in LTU Engineering Department, we saw the successful delivery of TRL9 sub-systems for the DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS). The Victorian Minister for Industry and Innovation, at the time, requested a Press Conference to announce the achievements of LTU as part of the attempt to secure the HQ of the Australian Space Agency in Melbourne.

LTU and the DLR have been partnering with various global organisations to utilise the hyperspectral imagery for precision agriculture, fire landscape management pre and post fire as well as water quality assessment.