Stuart Buchan, PhD

Australia's NASA-aligned Remote Operations Complex, providing the United States with continuous southern-hemisphere mission control, flight-software R&D, and space-traffic-management services in support of NASA, Intuitive Machines, and the Australian Space Agency.

• Made lunar-flight history: On console as the SpAARC mission operations team transmitted Australia's first in-flight command to Intuitive Machines' Nova-C (IM-2) lander during cislunar transit, paving the way for 24-hour U.S.–Australia mission coverage during the historic second-ever commercial lunar landing.
• Shielding U.S. assets: Co-designed a cloud-based collision-avoidance service with NASA that fuses Starling & Starlink ephemeris, auto-flagging conjunctions < 10 m and establishing an operational template for bilateral space-traffic management aligned with NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations program.
• Democratising space flight software: Led development of a web-based core Flight System (cFS) table-builder that eliminates manual hex editing and cuts configuration time 5×. Now in testing with former NASA flight software leads, it enables non-programmers to safely build and deploy spacecraft configurations.
• Opening cutting-edge hardware paths: Ported NASA's cFS to RISC-V SoCs, unlocking low-cost, export-compliant processors for allied missions.
• De-risked Australia's flagship lunar rover mission: Emulated candidate flight computers on FPGAs months ahead of delivery to validate compatibility with NASA payloads. Developed a CI-ready embedded Linux image with virtualisation (QEMU), enabling on-schedule Preliminary Design Review and supporting remote development.

An initiative of Curtin University's Space Science and Technology Centre developing compact, cost-effective CubeSats to advance Australia's space capabilities through missions in Low Earth Orbit.

• Made Western Australian space history: Led end-to-end flight software development for Western Australia's first satellite, Binar-1 — meeting mission objectives, verifying software capability on orbit, and establishing a reliable platform for future payload integrations with national partners.
• Grew Australia's spaceflight talent pipeline: Mentored and led a team of engineers and university students responsible for developing spaceflight software for the Binar-2, 3, and 4 CubeSats, consistently achieving mission objectives and expanding Australia's sovereign space capability.
• Engineered flight-ready reliability from scratch: Architected a comprehensive software stack — drivers, board support layers, and hardware abstraction layers in C/C++ — streamlining flight software development and enhancing system performance.
• Ported proven practices to the space industry: Established a robust CI/CD pipeline incorporating automated testing and rigorous code reviews, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, mission-critical software to orbit.
• Shared Australia's CubeSat leap with the world: Delivered the talk "Binar Space Program: Mission Two Payloads and Operations Plan" at the 2023 AIAA/USU Small Satellite Conference in the U.S., with the accompanying paper downloaded more than 160 times worldwide.

Laboratory supervisor for Mechatronics Microcontroller Project (semi-autonomous robot design) and Mechatronics Modelling Project (model-based design for autonomous systems).

• Bridged theory and practice: Mentored second-year engineering students in applying theoretical concepts to real-world challenges, fostering deeper understanding and cultivating problem-solving skills.
• Turned coursework into capability: Designed and facilitated hands-on workshops equipping students with practical skills directly applicable to their careers.
• Kept learning alive in lockdown: Rapidly developed an alternative codebase during COVID-19 that enabled students to continue studies remotely on personal laptops when standard lab software was inaccessible.

Part of the Global Fireball Observatory — a collaborative effort with NASA, University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and Lowell Observatory to study meteorite falls worldwide.

• Expanded a global meteor network: Constructed, deployed, and maintained automated fireball observation cameras supporting the GFO's planetary science data collection efforts.
• Delivered the hardware behind the science: Coordinated precision setup, calibration, and operation of complex observation equipment, resulting in a significant increase in observation time and improved datasets worldwide.

CSIRO's division responsible for developing and operating world-class radio astronomy facilities, including contributions to the international Square Kilometre Array project.

• Co-developed a navigation and visualisation platform for monitoring measurement points of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescopes — supporting operational needs and active development through at least 2021.
• Designed and implemented custom anomaly detection algorithms in Python, enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of radio telescope data analysis.

Thesis: Pushing the Boundaries of Spacecraft Autonomy and Resilience with a Custom Software Framework and Onboard Digital Twin

• Identified software errors as a significant contributor to CubeSat mission failures, accounting for approximately 35% of total mission failures.
• Utilised a "Learning From Incidents" approach to identify recurring factors leading to software failures in historic space missions.
• Applied reliable software design principles to satellite software development, demonstrated through a case study on Western Australia's first satellite, Binar-1.
• Developed an onboard digital twin for the Binar CubeSat platform running on a memory-constrained flight computer, demonstrating fault prediction and autonomous fault prevention.
• Successfully integrated the software framework onto Binar-2, 3, and 4 along with the novel onboard digital twin for in-orbit testing.
• Findings support NASA Standard 8719.14 debris-mitigation criteria and the FCC's 2022 "5-year rule" for LEO satellite disposal by improving CubeSat on-orbit success rates.

• Graduated with First Class Honours.
• Recognised for academic excellence with five letters of commendation from the Mechanical Engineering Board of Examiners.

• Appointed to a two-year post on the SGAC Events Coordination Team, overseeing the development of local-level events worldwide and acting as the focal point connecting event managers with SGAC's executive teams.
• Review event bids and proposals, ensure consistent quality standards across SGAC's global portfolio of local and partnered events, and build a knowledge base of templates and lessons learned for future event managers.
• Sit on the SGAC Executive Committee, reporting to the Executive Director and Co-Chairs on operational activities related to local events.

• Coordinated approximately 150 international delegates across all stages of the Congress in Sydney — from application review and selection through to registration, travel logistics for scholarship winners, and on-site participation.