Stuart Buchan, PhD

Australia’s remote operations and flight software centre supporting NASA, Intuitive Machines, and the Australian Space Agency.

• Ported NASA’s core Flight System (cFS) to RISC-V SoCs, enabling low-cost, export-compliant processing options for allied space missions.
• Led development of a web-based cFS table builder that eliminated manual hex editing and reduced configuration time by 5×, enabling safer spacecraft configuration by non-programmers.
• Emulated candidate flight computers on FPGAs ahead of hardware delivery to validate compatibility with NASA payloads for Australia’s lunar rover mission and support an on-schedule Preliminary Design Review.
• Built a CI-ready embedded Linux image with QEMU-based virtualisation to support remote development and early software validation on candidate flight-computer architectures.
• Supported mission operations for Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lunar mission, helping deliver Australia’s first in-flight command transmission to the Nova-C lander during cislunar transit and extend continuous U.S.–Australia mission coverage.
• Co-designed a cloud-based collision avoidance service with NASA, fusing Starling and Starlink ephemeris to automatically flag conjunctions under 10 m and support bilateral space traffic management workflows.

Curtin University CubeSat program developing compact spacecraft to grow Australia’s sovereign space capability through missions in low Earth orbit.

• Led flight software development for four satellites launched to low Earth orbit, including Western Australia’s first satellite, Binar-1.
• Led and mentored engineers and university students across the Binar-2, 3, and 4 missions, expanding local capability in spaceflight software development and operations.
• Architected the flight software stack in C/C++, including drivers, board support packages, and hardware abstraction layers, improving reuse, performance, and maintainability across missions.
• Established a CI/CD pipeline with automated testing and rigorous code review to improve software quality and reliability for flight systems.
• Presented "Binar Space Program: Mission Two Payloads and Operations Plan" at the 2023 AIAA/USU Small Satellite Conference in the United States.

Laboratory supervisor for mechatronics courses covering microcontrollers, semi-autonomous robotics, and model-based design.

• Mentored second-year engineering students in applying theoretical concepts to practical robotics and autonomous systems projects.
• Designed and delivered hands-on workshops to build practical skills in embedded systems and engineering problem-solving.
• Developed an alternative software environment during COVID-19 that enabled students to continue coursework remotely on personal laptops when standard lab software was unavailable.

Part of the Global Fireball Observatory, a collaboration studying meteorite falls and fireball events worldwide.

• Constructed, deployed, and maintained automated fireball observation cameras supporting planetary science data collection across the network.
• Coordinated setup, calibration, and operation of observation equipment, improving reliability and increasing useful observation time.

CSIRO division responsible for major radio astronomy facilities, including contributions to the Square Kilometre Array.

• Co-developed a navigation and visualisation platform for monitoring measurement points on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescopes.
• Designed and implemented anomaly detection algorithms in Python to improve 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.

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

• Nominated by the U.S. Consul General to participate in this flagship professional exchange program, joining an international cohort of emerging space leaders for a three-week program across the United States focused on deepening cooperation among spacefaring nations.

• 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.