Student receives NZ Space Scholarship
AUT student Asif Rasha is heading to Southern California to work alongside NASA scientists and engineers, thanks to a New Zealand Space Agency-sponsored scholarship.
The second AUT student to receive the prestigious New Zealand Space Scholarship in two years, Asif will work with the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), based out of Pasadena, for three months.
While at the facility, he will continue his PhD research into developing surface and optics measurement techniques for radio telescopes, using terrestrial laser scanning technology.
“Radio telescopes are large satellite dish antennas that are used for radio astronomy and deep space communications,” says Asif, who has a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences and a Master of Science from AUT.
“NASA relies on a global network of these large radio antennas to communicate with their satellites and spacecraft.”
But gravitational forces can affect the radio signals that these antennas detect, he says, causing them to distort and degrading the quality of the signal.
“During my time at the JPL, I will work with the team to help develop an innovative noise-mitigation system that will address this mechanical noise,” Asif says.
“The system aims to enhance the signal clarity, making deep space communication more reliable and efficient.
“I’m excited to bring my expertise in antenna metrology to this project and learn from the incredible team at JPL,” he says.
The seven recipients of the 2025 New Zealand Space Scholarship were announced at a ceremony at Parliament today.
The students’ experience at JPL will support their studies while providing real-world skills to start exciting careers in New Zealand’s fast-growing space industry, which has increased its revenue by an estimated 53 percent in the five years to 2024 - a faster rate than the global space sector.
The space and advanced aviation sectors added more than $2.5 billion to the economy in the 2023-24 financial year, and the space sector supported 17,000 jobs in Aotearoa.
In 2024, AUT PhD candidate Axl Rogers was one of six recipients of the New Zealand Space Agency-sponsored scholarship. AUT Professor of Radio Astronomy Sergei Gulyaev, who supervised Axl and Asif during their postgraduate studies, says he is very proud of both students.
“This is both a great honour and a significant responsibility. I am confident that Asif, like Axl before him, will gain invaluable experience and further strengthen our longstanding research collaboration with NASA and JPL in the critically important area of Space Science and Technology — a growing focus for New Zealand's research and industry,” he says.
“I would also like to express my appreciation to the New Zealand Space Agency for recognising the high calibre of AUT students in astronomy and space science, and I wish Asif all the best for his research at JPL.”