Saber Astronautics has announced the first set of projects selected for development at the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Australian Astronaut Program.
Saber’s Australian Astronaut Program, announced last July, aims to enable Australian industry and researchers to access the Station’s orbiting microgravity laboratory and develop a new generation of space-developed products for human health, materials, electronics, cleantech, and more.
Saber said this first round of projects were accepted based on their 'manufacturing potential' and 'longer term capabilities' in various fields such as health, food production, and future sustainable space access. The projects include:
- The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plants for Space (P4S) and University of Adelaide is developing sustainable, productive space crops;
- A project to study the impacts of the space environment on frozen mice embryos, eggs and sperm by IVF Australia, Virtus Health, 23strands, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Technology Sydney;
- NSW engineering company Titomic is developing a method to repair solid state metals, crucial for long term, sustainable repair of large space objects;
- Vostok Space Beer, a joint venture between Saber Astronautics and the 4-Pines Brewery, will fly the world’s first beer you can drink in space, with a 0-g beer bottle.
Project teams will participate in a series of workshops starting in February at Wolfpack Space Hub, in order to get "flight ready" for Axiom’s flights to the ISS in 2024 and 2025.
"We are impressed by the innovation and creativity in the proposals and are excited to see the potential they can have on the future of space exploration and on Earth," Saber CEO Dr. Jason Held said. "There are more projects signing up and we want to give the best opportunity for industry to make the most of this exciting opportunity."
Saber plans additional project proposal rounds and workshops on a bi-annual basis.