BinarX: Orbiting Meg Berry
The Lab
Building 204 is one of the older buildings on campus that overlooks a grassy knoll. At the bottom of the building, not quite in the basement (but close to the Basement café!) resides a modern-day innovation chamber, otherwise known as the Binar laboratory. This lab has covered windows and requires key-card access. It’s here, in this hidden hub of space science, that I meet Meg Berry fresh from a coffee at Mallokup, the café of choice for Curtin’s ‘Big Bang’ cohort.
Meg Berry has a background in graphic design, project management and public artwork. The energy tumbles from her when we speak. The energy is direct, focused and brilliant. Her way with words and innate ability to understand technical terms made her a perfect fit for becoming the Outreach Program Coordinator at the Binar Space Program. I became swept up in her energy during the interview as she took me on a 360-degree journey through BinarX.
Binar
To understand BinarX, one must first understand Binar. The Binar Space Program at Curtin University, or Binar, is a team of talented engineers and students that send cube satellites (or CubeSats) into space. Binar is also the Noongar word for ‘fireball’, which pays homage to the group’s heritage in the Desert Fireball Network, and is coincidentally what the CubeSats become when they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere after their space voyage. Satellites have standard designations based on their size such as 1 Unit, 2U or 3U, and each unit is 10 centimetres squared. The existing Binars are 1U CubeSats and represent the first satellites built by Western Australians in WA to reach space, giving the Binar Space Program a distinctive role in space exploration.
BinarX
The BinarX program is Curtin University’s contribution to the Future Space Workforce program of WA. Meg says BinarX ‘is to inspire and enable the next generation of space scientists and engineers by giving them a direct connection to a pathway to be linked with an authentic space program right here in WA.’ BinarX is a STEM outreach program at Curtin University designed to do just that, by giving high-school students in WA the opportunity to design, build, test and fly their own equipment in space onboard a Binar CubeSat. The Binar team will launch three more CubeSats, Binar-5, -6 and -7, in late 2026. Somehow, the team at Binar has managed to bend the laws of space and time to ensure there is enough room on Binar-5 for several student payloads. This is the first BinarX trip into space, and students are excited about the completion of this journey. The journey doesn’t begin with the launch; it begins with payload development.
BinarX is to inspire and enable the next generation of space scientists and engineers.
Payload Development
‘The BinarX payload development program is based on some tertiary units here at Curtin University.’ These units are run by Dr. Robert Howie, a research fellow, engineer and unit coordinator at Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. ‘A lot of mature space agencies like NASA will have a framework or a guideline for the steps that you need to go through to qualify or progress your project for space, whether it’s a spacecraft or an instrument or payload.’ The BinarX program has borrowed these guidelines, melding them with the unit content to create a unique offering for high school students across the greater Perth area.
‘Payloads are the small experiments that go into the spacecraft that do the job. They might take the temperature or assess which way the satellite is pointing with a magnetometer.’ Though these payloads are simple in what they measure, it isn’t about the measurements. It is about ensuring students have the chance to develop their own payload from the concept to the design and from the breadboard to the printed circuit board. ‘Over the last two years, the students have been coming up with their science questions that they want to answer, learning about the constraints and capabilities of a CubeSat.’
Mission Concept Review
Binar educates and supports the students throughout their entire journey. ‘We spent the first six months going out and teaching them about the space environment and discussing what they might be able to observe or measure in space on a CubeSat. Then, they brainstormed in their groups and their teams.’ At the end of the first six months, the students showed up, front and centre, for their Mission Concept Review (MCR). For this, a team of industry partners, experts and Binar collaborated to decide if the students’ proposed missions were feasible. After the MCR, the students received the go ahead to move forward with a Payload Development Kit.
The Right Kit for Space
The Payload Development Kit comes with everything necessary to develop the student payloads. It has a breadboard (to plan out the circuitry), data sheets, wires, LEDs, microcontrollers and a power source. Meg took me through each aspect, explaining it all to me in a thoughtful and engaging way considering my total lack of experience in this area, much like one of her students in the early days of the program.
The student experience doesn’t stop at connecting the breadboard dots; they must program their payloads too. ‘We support them heavily to do that. We write the shell code and then they just modify it.’ Without software programming, the satellite won’t know what to do and when. The programming also ensures that the satellite collects the right data and can transmit findings back to the students.
[More] Design Reviews
After the students have completed their prototype comes the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), where the students presented their prototype for approval of inclusion on a Binar CubeSat. At this stage, the students are developing their transferable skills for future employment such as teamwork, public speaking and presentation, time management, problem solving and personal leadership.
After the PDR, the students are left with various requirements as stated by the Binarteam, and if these are met the teams can progress to the Technical Readiness Review (TRR) – at which point they hand over their payloads and integration documentation for inclusion onto a Binar CubeSat. While the students wait for launch, they prepare groundstations for communication with their satellite, through a global satellite network called SatNOGS.
SatNOGS: Open-Source Global Network of Satellite Ground Stations
SatNOGS is a ‘global network of satellite observation enthusiasts.’ Though they are amateurs, they are vital to the success of the Binarmissions. ‘That community has been instrumental in helping us track our past missions.’ A groundstation is used to communicate with satellites, and consists of antennas, radio frequency equipment, signal processors, power supply and control systems that work together to receive data from and transmit commands to space. ‘Now the students are building those groundstations to use in their own schools so that they can track their own satellite with their stuff on board in real time when it’s passing overhead in Perth and engage with the global community.’
Taking Turns
Communicating with satellites requires a bit of scheduling, as there will be multiple payloads on board and limited time on each overhead pass to download data. ‘Students submit a scheduling request to our team. Then we will send that command to the Binar satellite when it’s passing overhead Perth. Then their payload, when it’s told to switch on, will switch on and gather data for up to 90 seconds, and send it to the onboard flight computer. Once the Binar satellite flies over again, then we can downlink it and give it to the students.’
End Transmission
The students don’t finish their journey when BinarX is over. The program is only the beginning. Furthermore, it is a chance for students ‘to see their value, whether it’s the serious kid, whether it’s the creative kid, whether it’s the kid that can’t sit still, everyone’s got that value and everyone’s got a place in space.’
Though the interview draws to an end, Meg Berry will not. This vibrant person will continue working with children through STEM outreach programs and other projects such as FIRST® LEGO® League to ensure children see their value and are encouraged to be explorers of new technology and ideas. Her contribution to the Future Space Workforce of Western Australia is as enormous as it is invaluable.
Written by Louise Kaestner, 2025. For more, visit LinkedIn or head to her website: https://www.louisekaestnerwriter.com/