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“That was a project I organised in 2013 while I was working in innovators. It is essentially a pack that has a story book,
the Irish Centre for Composites Research (IComp) at the comic book and downloadable augmented reality app which
University of Limerick. We signed an agreement with provides both audio and video content to bring the narrative
NanoRacks which is an American company and they have to life.
commercial facilities on the International Space Station.
“During my time at the ISU I have met lots of different people The Irish Space Sector INTERVIEW
from all over the globe doing really cool space projects.” In recent years, the Irish space sector has been expanding
rapidly, generating significant economic impact particularly
Dr. Patten says she learned about NanoRacks in 2011 when in terms of jobs, exports and new company formation,
the founder arrived at IComp’s department to give a facilitated through Ireland’s membership of the European
presentation about NanoRacks and the work they were Space Agency.
doing. In 2013 IComp signed an agreement with NanoRacks
for one student experiment to go to the International Space The set-up of Ireland’s first national Space Strategy for
Station. Enterprise by the Department of Business, Enterprise and
Innovation was announced recently by Minister of State for
“We then ran a national competition with Transition Year Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development,
students. We got to visit a lot of different schools and talk to John Halligan.
them about the project and what they needed to consider
when they were developing space experiments and then we The Strategy will set out how Ireland can maximise the
had a number of abstracts submitted and from that we benefit of its investment in the European Space Agency (ESA)
picked our winning project to actually fly to space, to the and in the European Union’s (EU) flagship space programmes,
International Space Station. Copernicus, Galileo and Horizon 2020.

“It was developed by four teenagers from St. Nessan’s Enterprise Ireland is the organisation responsible for the
Community School in Limerick. They were looking at development and growth of Irish enterprises in world
reinforced concrete and how it would set microgravity markets. It works closely with Irish tech companies to gain
compared to here on Earth. It flew in July of 2014 on the access to the space industry and to support them in securing
Orb-2 mission to the ISS and it spent about ten weeks up ESA contracts that will position them in the global space
there and then it came back to Earth. We brought it back to market.
the University of Limerick and we were able to do different
analysis on it like a 3D X-ray which is perfect because it’s non According to Minister Halligan there are more than sixty Irish
intrusive and non invasive. We could get lots of different companies currently benefiting from contracts with ESA.
images out of it without damaging the contents.” Between now and 2020 five new companies are expected to
enter the sector per year. Furthermore, employment in Irish
Planet Zebunar companies which benefit from ESA contracts is expected to
When Norah isn’t taking part in public engagements, public double from 2,000 in 2014 to over 4,500 in 2020. Asked about
speaking and outreach events or training to fly to space, she where Ireland can make a greater impact in terms of the
manages her own company which she founded before space industry in general Dr. Patten said: “Minister Halligan
Christmas last year. has announced that they are going to be putting together a
space strategy for Ireland over the coming months. I really
think that needs to happen to identify what areas of the
space industry are most relevant in terms of financials and
industry and all of those things that are here in Ireland.

“I think that space strategy for Ireland needs to be compiled
to really identify which areas are of most benefit to Ireland.
Hopefully that will happen over the next few months. We
don’t have a space agency yet.

“We have a team in Enterprise Ireland that take care of our
investment in the European Space Agency so I think it’s a
case of looking strategically for Ireland as a whole, as a
nation, and see where we can move forward.”

Norah will participate in her second PoSSUM training
programme this coming April. “I always say to people it’s
about progressing. Every year you need to look at how you
can progress so that when these opportunities come up you
can apply and that you’ll have done things over the past
Titled Planet Zebunar, this is a product for children aimed at number of years to put yourself in a good position,”
the next generation of engineers, astronauts, scientists and concluded Dr. Patten.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport 15