Aotearoa - Ideal Basecamp for Space

Credit: NASA/Goddard/NPP

Emeline Dulce Paat-Dahlstrom and Eric Dahlstrom (Cohort 1) were among the first international EHF Fellows to bring their entrepreneurial skills to Aotearoa.  Since setting up their not-for-profit consultancy, SpaceBase, in Christchurch in 2017, they have worked tirelessly to connect the sector and profile New Zealand’s place as an emerging leader in aerospace technology, discovery and democratisation.

“Coming from the US, where space technologies have become much more accessible over the last few decades, we are really focused on opening up space, not just for the nations that have an existing space industry, but for the whole world,” Emeline says.  “We need to prevent a future where the wealthy own space and the rest of us are here in a Mad Max universe, and we thought that New Zealand was a perfect place to actually make that happen; to create systems in developing and emerging countries for them to build that industry.  We want to shrink the gap between space-faring nations and the rest of the world because we need to build a sustainable space economy for the future where everyone can come along on the journey.”

Eric Dahlstrom and Emeline Dulce Paat-Dahlstrom (Cohort 1)

This is the core objective for SpaceBase, where Emeline and Eric are working hard to build Aotearoa’s space ecosystem through education, competitions and connecting entrepreneurs with investment opportunities.  “One thing that really motivates us is the realisation of these exponential technologies; making everything cheaper and more accessible,” Eric adds.  “We saw friends starting these big space companies from their garage in California.  This was our message when we came to New Zealand: all these things that you thought were hard or impossible, actually the barriers have come down quite a bit.”

With Emeline’s background as the Executive VP of Operations and Chief Impact Officer for Singularity University and Eric’s experience as a space engineer, astronomer and consultant for NASA, the pair brought with them a range of essential skills and networks to catalyse Aotearoa’s space industry.  “When we got here, we were doing a lot of prototyping to figure out exactly what we could do: educational programmes and outreach for high school kids all the way up to connecting investors with opportunities and advocating to government the role that NZ should be playing when it comes to space democratisation,” Emeline says.  “The other thing we tried was competitions, which actually caught on quite a bit.  With prize-based incentives, we created a methodology to educate people and also get collaboration across regions and sectors.”

Since then, Emeline and Eric have been leading the charge with competitions and accelerator programmes which challenge participants to tackle the earth’s biggest problems using space technologies. Most recently, they collaborated with another Fellow-led initiative, Planet (Will Marshall, Cohort 8 & Robbie Schingler, Cohort 7,), on the ‘Space for Planet Earth Challenge’ which employed satellite data to address carbon sequestration and coral health in the Pacific Islands region. “The high school finalists from Wellington were using machine learning, something that I was never exposed to at that age. They’ve since been invited to present their findings to the satellite company and a group that monitors coral reefs,” Eric says. The university finalists, he adds, were a collective out of Fiji who exceeded all expectations. “This collective is really connected to community groups on the ground in Fiji, measuring mangroves and soil carbon content. Then, they take it all the way back to really sophisticated satellite data processing. The challenge was designed with the hope that somebody like this was out there and this really helped move their project forward.”

Space for Earth Challenge - University Finalists, Image courtesy of the US Embassy in Fiji.

Eric and Emeline have also kept a close eye on Capstone this year.  The mission, which commenced with a satellite launched by Rocketlab in June, was a critical first step in the Artemis programme - a NASA initiative to ultimately build a new space station around the Moon.  “This is NASA’s first return mission to the moon,” Eric says, “and the fact that it launched from New Zealand is significant for the country’s profile.  The Artemis programme, to send humans back to the moon, is a massive plan with a decade-long schedule and is expected to have 10 times more capability than Apollo for roughly the same budget.”  

“They’ll first send robotic missions,” Emeline adds, “which is why [another Fellow-led initiative] Ceres Robotics (Udit Shah, Cohort 8, Michael D’Angelo, Cohort 8, Micahel Sims, Cohort 8 ) are working to design and build landers and rovers.  Then there’s the human flight side which will follow the Capstone mission with parts of a new space station that is going to be orbiting around the moon, as opposed to the earth.  Then they will send humans there and, eventually, land on the moon. New Zealand as a launchpad will have been a key part of this historic ‘return-to-the-moon’ journey.”

For now, Eric and Emmeline remain busy on the ground in Ōtautahi, developing the ecosystem through SpaceBase.  “SpaceBase is unique because we are an LLC with a charitable constitution, and have no equity to offer.  While we do not qualify as a non-profit in NZ, we do need sponsorship and donation to support our education and outreach activities.  We can receive philanthropic funding indirectly via a donor’s fund through the Gift Trust.”  The pair is eager to continue building their deep connections with the Edmund Hillary Fellowship to further their vision, Eric says. We’ve collaborated with the community to advance our projects and we couldn’t have done it without the Fellowship.”

Looking ahead, Emeline and Eric are passionate about continuing to raise awareness across  Aotearoa about the space industry, and all of the commercial and environmental potential it could hold for New Zealand.  “There’s a big misconception that space exploration is all about looking out, when in reality a lot of what we’re doing and need to be doing from space is looking in; solving the earth’s problems with our space technologies.  Over 75% of the global space economy is actually satellite applications and those are focusing down on earth and servicing activities here,” Emeline says.  “Decision-making, climate monitoring, agriculture, disaster management - all of these things are enabled by the space economy.”

With its strong agriculture and land-management foundations, New Zealand is well positioned and skilled to lead in this way.  “Part of the message that we share with people in New Zealand is that you can do this work from here and, when you do, you’re working on a global scale,” Eric says.  “As soon as you launch a satellite to take pictures of New Zealand, you should be thinking about how you can employ that satellite while it’s orbiting the rest of the earth.  What you’re doing here could help solve some of the world’s biggest problems.”

To connect with Eric and Emeline, visit https://spacebase.co/ or get in touch at info@spacebase.co
Also read A New Governance Landscape on the Moon

Story by EHF Fellow Bex De Prospo (Cohort 2) and Director of Authentic Storytelling