One giant leap for Niamh as her camera is set for space launch

A West of Ireland woman, who dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a child, has spoken about her burgeoning career and her work on her first piece of equipment that is being launched into space.

Niamh McDermott, aged 25, from the Athleague area of Co Roscommon, graduated in 2020 from NUI Galway with an Honours Degree in Physics and Astrophysics. Now a systems engineer with Réaltra, she develops hardware and spent several months last year working on a camera that is being sent into space before the end of March.

Réaltra is an Irish company dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of cost-effective space electronic systems using cutting-edge technologies. Ballina native Dr Norah Patten, an aeronautical engineer and Irish astronaut candidate, is the company’s Space Systems Engineering Business Development Manager and she has praised Niamh’s work.

When interviewed by the Western People, Niamh said she is grateful to her colleagues for their support.

"When I was a child I would have said astronaut was my dream job but when I did the courses in secondary school and I then got into college I found more of a passion for telescopes and optics,” Niamh said. “I started working on telescopes through NUI Galway and I did the ELT (Enterprise Leadership for Transformation) in South America as part of my final year.

After graduating Niamh got a job in Oxford, England with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) as an optical engineer. She is now back in Ireland and thoroughly enjoys her job with Réaltra.

“[Most people] want to work for ESA (European Space Agency) or NASA, but those kind of areas are very competitive because they take in academics and industry people alike,” she said. “But the smaller space industry where I am is much less competitive, especially if you have projects behind you."

Niamh mainly works with cameras in Réaltra and is involved from start to finish on elements such as design, testing, documentation.

"Because we are a small company everyone is all hands on deck all of the time so it does not matter what your role is because everyone needs you to do whatever has to be done at the time,” she added.

Niamh said it is enjoyable and she is getting great experience.

“I get to do things I never would have done anywhere else, I just sent off a camera to a customer in September and it is supposed to be launched in the first quarter of 2024,” she added.

Niamh said the customer was a private purchaser as opposed to a large space sector firm and they worked with another Irish company Ubotica Technologies who specialise in software-based technology.

"We worked with them as well to create this camera and they managed to get a spot on the SpaceX flight to go up with it,” she added.

Elon Musk's SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp, is a California-based company that dominates the market for commercial space launch services with its Falcon rockets.

Niamh spoke about the elements of the camera that needed to be developed and said Ubotica wants to use it to monitor Earth observation and cloud detection.

“At Réaltra, we take the software and hardware and build the enclosure (metalwork) which protects the camera from the environment the rocket flies through and the shock when the bearings separate," she said. "We are focused on making sure our camera never leaves the rocket but instead monitors the satellite as it goes on its journey to space."

Niamh said it is very rewarding but there are challenges such as “so many documents, so many parts and things to order”. She believes all her hard work will be worth it when her camera goes up to space in the coming months. She is also very excited about her future role.

“People need technology, they need electronics and software to survive and we rely on it so much in our day-to-day lives,” she said. “So it definitely creates more chances to have products in space and new projects.” 

Réaltra Space Systems Engineering was recently awarded a milestone contract of nearly €1 million by the prestigious French launch provider ArianeGroup to develop a state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) telemetry system.