UQ Space

Recently we were honoured to be featured in .ayaa‘s Student Stories docuseries detailing our lead up to the 2025 Australian Universities Rocket Competition.

Get a first hand recount from those on the competition team about what they’re doing to push the future of the Australian space industry forward.

You can watch the video via the link in our bio!

You can RSVP via the link in our bio.
We are excited to invite all of you to our upcoming showcase evening for Theseus V on Friday the 24th of April at 5:15pm!

This event marks the completion of the Theseus V rover, bringing together students, staff, industry partners, and supporters for an evening of innovation and community.

The night features a detailed technical presentation from the project team, offering insights into the engineering, design, and development journey behind Theseus V. Guests will also have the opportunity to network with students, academics, and industry professionals, fostering collaboration and future partnerships.

We are proud to announce that UQ Space placed first at the 2026 Australian Rover Challenge!

We first attended the Australian Rover Challenge (ARCh) in 2021, with our rover Theseus I. Since then, we have returned each year, incrementally iterating and improving on our fundamental design. This design philosophy has lead to us slowly climbing the competition leader-board - amounting in our victory for Theseus V.

This achievement is the result of hard work and dedication from members across the entirety of UQ Space, across every iteration of our rover!

We would like to say a massive thank you to our members through the years that have worked so hard to make this possible. A special shout out must also go to our sponsors, The University of Queensland & Boeing Defence Australia, who have provided the support necessary to achieve these results.

[2] The competition team receiving the award.
[3] Preparing Theseus V after transit.
[4] The water extraction system payload collecting water for the space resources task on day 1.
[5} Theseus being placed on the lander for the post-landing task on day 2.
[6] The robotic arm payload interacting with keyboards, buttons and switches in the post-landing task.
[7] The map generated autonomously by Theseus on day 3.
[8] The competition team looking at the autonomous map.
[9] Theseus deploying pavers for day 4 - the excavation and construction task.
[10] Theseus excavating regolith with the excavator payload.

ARCh Day 2 Recap!

Theseus had a very successful day, passing the post-landing challenge with flying colours! We achieved a score of 107.5 - the first team to cross the 100-point mark, along with the highest score in the post landing challenge.

Next up, we have autonomy and mapping, where we can't wait to have Theseus successfully navigate the arena by itself!



UQ Engineering and Technology

ARCh Day 1 Recap!

Theseus had a successful day, completing the space resources task with no major issues, despite some brief weather-related pauses 🌧.

We're looking forward to tomorrow - where our new robotic arm will make its debut in the post-landing challenge!



UQ Engineering and Technology

Happy !

We're celebrating the amazing women who work tirelessly on our rockets and rovers to get them ready for this year's competitions 🚀🌏! We can't wait to see where their contributions take us in 2026👩‍🏭👩‍🚀👩‍🔬

Descriptions of photos:
1. Our Technical Director (Taylor) and Operations Lead (Alex) assembling Theseus’ excavator before a testing session
2. Our Deputy Propulsion Lead (Fay) and Technical Director (Taylor) reviewing flight checklists at AURC 2025
3. Our Deputy Payload Lead (Phoebe) machining parts for Theseus V
4. Our Theseus V Lead (Adriel) happy with the progress of our pavers!

Come say hello to Australia's premier space engineering team! We're having our new member night information session tonight at 6:15pm in 50-N202!

We'll be giving a brief talk on some of our recent successes, what our goals are, along with what each of our sub-teams work on. It's also the perfect opportunity to come and ask members of our sub-teams any questions you may have. We'll also be providing some snags afterwards and a chance to mingle and chat.

If you're planning on attending and haven't already RSVP'd it would be greatly appreciated - you can find the link in our story.

See you there!

We're here at Market Day!

Come chat to some members of our team to talk about all the different possibilities within UQ Space. If you can't make it today, don't worry, here's some brief information about what you're in for:

We've got 8 sub-teams to join (Aerostructures, Avionics, Payload, Propulsion, Recovery, Systems, Operations, Business & Marketing)
We have 2 main competitions per year - the Australian Rover Challenge (ARCh - happening very soon!) and the Australian Universities Rocketry Competitions (AURC)

Our new member night is Wednesday next week (25/2) at 1815 in the Hawken Engineering Building. We'll have pitches from each sub team explaining why their team is the best, along with a chat & mingle (with food!) afterwards. If you want to come along, please join here: https://forms.gle/VpBCsZ5BsabfGS8w7

Our 2026 Semester 1 recruitment intake is opening tomorrow!

We'll be at Market Day inside the Great Court tomorrow in stall 13, alongside the Forgan Smith Building (near Chancellors Place). If you can't make it but still want to join, don't worry, the link to sign up and get information about our new members night will be made available tomorrow on our socials.

We’re proud to announce that UQ Space has accepted into the Race 2 Space competition for 2026!

Project Ra, our hybrid N2O/Paraffin motor, is our first foray into hybrid propulsion, and marks a significant step in our SRAD propulsion journey.

Our preliminary design report (PDR) was in the top 16 submissions, an amazing achievement with many congratulations being due. However, we know our ceiling is a lot higher, and the team is already deep underway raising the bar for the upcoming CDR.

To the other teams attending this year - we’ll see you there!