Reaching for the stars

Women in Space Aotearoa New Zealand is a new organisation dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and other gender minorities to work in space fields and pursuing gender equity in the space sector.

Its aim is to provide a professional network and inclusive community that supports women working in the space sector in New Zealand, provides mentorship for women wanting to enter the sector and encourages the next generation of New Zealand women to pursue a career in space, particularly in STEM fields.

Members represent a wide variety of fields in the space sector, including science, engineering, business, medicine, policy, and law.

It includes many women working in the New Zealand space sector including at universities and research institutes, in government roles and in the New Zealand space industry.

Founding members include University of Canterbury’s Dr Michele Bannister and Dr Sarah Kessans, and UC graduate Kate Breach. A planetary scientist at the University of Canterbury, Dr Bannister describes her role as “incredibly varied”.

“On any given day, I can be working on newly arrived images from one of the world’s big telescopes, involved in a collaborative chat about details of a space mission with colleagues overseas, helping students work through their understanding of the latest finding in planetary geology, solving a data visualisation problem with Python programming, or organising a field trip to our observatory at Tekapo — and that’s just one day of the week.” she explains.

Dr Kessans’ work focuses on using plants, fungi, and bacteria to produce chemical products ranging from pharmaceuticals to agrichemicals.

“We’re working towards developing strategies for food and pharmaceutical production for future space exploration,” she says.

The aim is to develop organisms and facilities to provide this production in space. For more information visit the website www.womeninspace.co.nz.