Community-youth, Space, Youth

From Campus to The Cosmos

  • 08 Oct 2025
  • Text by SEDS NTU
From Campus to The Cosmos: SEDS-NTU 24/25 Wrap-Up

The current landscape of the Space Race is no longer just in the domain of the superpowers of the world; it is becoming a bustling, multi-trillion dollar economy that is driven by both national ambitions and private innovations. Reaching from the low Earth orbit to the lunar surface and beyond, we are definitely in a new era of the Space Race. Considering this, a question emerges: where does Singapore, renowned for its technological prowess and distinct visionary strategies, but lacking a territory for launch sites and an overall history far removed from cosmic exploration, fit into this frontier of the New Age?

Here’s what we know: Singapore possesses the required financial muscle, state of the art research institutions, and one of the world’s most thriving tech ecosystems. In short, there is capability and potential; yet, in the global noise of spacefaring nations and corporate giants in the private sector, a distinctive Singaporean voice, one showing our strengths in finance, law, and technology, blending with the demands of space, is a voice still finding its frequency. As I write this and you read this, the framework for how Singapore will operate and lead in space is being written in real time, but the critical question stands, who is holding the pen?

SEDS-NTU 24/25 Main Committee. Photo: SEDS-NTU

This academic year, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space at Nanyang Technological University (SEDS-NTU) moved with a vision to answer that question. We began our growth from a club focused on rocketry and networking, into an active incubator for Singapore’s future space leaders. True to our previous years, we used the power of both industry engagement and academic collaboration, to ultimately finding our focus on policy development. Through our various efforts, SEDS-NTU has positioned itself for this academic year, and future years to be at the forefront of cultivating a diverse talent of space interest that will champion Singapore’s voice in the new space age. 

Chapter I: Our Foundation; Committee Bonding & Building The Foundation

Before you can talk about launch parties, you need to build a launch pad. For us, this meant getting our own house, the SEDS-NTU family, in order first.

The club had two annual general meetings last year, which we used to translate our wins. The progress with project New Dawn, our success with SEDSConnect, and many others, were translated into a clear roadmap for our current team. At our meetings, we saw a surge in signups, showing just how much NTU students were willing to show up for this space mission.

A Glimpse of SEDS-NTU Annual General Meetings. Photo: SEDS-NTU
Chapter II: Connecting Dots; A Glance of The Singapore Space Ecosystem

It is impossible to chart a course if we don’t know the players in motion. Our mission to find Singapore’s voice in the global space ecosystem meant that we had to first find the individual voices that existed in Singapore. We brought these voices directly to our members through SEDSConnect, fostering a dialogue between today’s students (the soon to be architects) and today’s architects.

At our flagship SEDSConnect event, the team assembled a miniature version of the entire Singapore space ecosystem on one stage. The insights shared proved to be a masterclass representing the current state of the industry:

  • From the Satellite Research Centre (SaRC), we learned how academic research forms a critical bedrock for everything else to sprout from,
  • From ALIENA, we got a glance into the rigorous R&D that turns any theory into reality,
  • From the Office for Space Technology & Industry (OSTIn), we heard directly from the government of its strategic vision for Singapore as a hub,
  • From Trancelestial, we saw the supersonic pace of private sector innovation, and how it is not just the big governments at play anymore.

This gave us a 360 degree view of the industry, which was exactly what our members wanted. The success of this arrangement was reflected in our numbers. The attendance exceeded venue capacity, proving that NTU students were hungry for a place in this ecosystem, and we do have the opportunity to take a seat at the table.

From Left to Right: Riya J (SEDS-NTU VP Projects), Dr George-Cristian Potrivitu (Co-founder and CTO of Aliena), Dr Erick Lansard (SEDS-NTU Faculty Supervisor), Dr Lim Wee Seng (Executive Director of SaRC), Ms Jacinth Lau (Deputy Director (Industry) at OSTIn), Jyoshika B (SEDS-NTU Programs Director), Mr Max Wisten (Head of Hardware Research and Manufacturing at Transcelestial). Photo: SEDS-NTU
Panel Discussion at the Singapore Space Symposium @ NTU 24/25. Photo: SEDS-NTU

Building up from the momentum, we deepened our academic connection with our Professor Roundtable, where we zeroed into the cutting-edge research happening right here at NTU. We heard from professors like Prof (Dr.) Lansard on how NTU’s satellite work has a direct impact on our current understanding of issues like climate change. The roundtable caused an imperative shift in the minds of students; transforming abstract coursework into something tangible and impactful.

These two flagship events of SEDS-NTU, one industry focused and the other academic, are more than just networking. It formed the imperative step of understanding the current landscape, so future committees can create a workplan that can help build it.

Professor Roundtable @ NTU. Photo: SEDS-NTU
Chapter III: The Proving Ground; Our Technical Progress

In the space sector, concepts and theories are vital, sure, but they must eventually translate into skills and hardware. This was when we decided to shift our focus from programmes to the workshops, to development.

Project New Dawn is our flagship hands-on engineering initiative, and has been for the past two and a half years. The project allowed us to grapple with the same challenges as professional engineers such as system integration, project management, budget constraints, permits, and of course, the constant troubleshooting of structures, electronics, and avionics.

Project New Dawn serves our team as a practical test, having to transform engineering principles into a tangible engineering product.

A Preliminary View of Project New Dawn. Photo: SEDS-NTU

We support this mission with our technical workshops in electronics as well as in structures. These workshops acts as training camps by bridging the gap between what we learn at lectures and real-world applications. Through the workshops, we help to guide students from circuit diagrams to actually building and soldering them, from learning about stress tensors to running simulations. Such workshops are crucial, as they serve as the bridge between being a student and being problem solvers capable of building towards the ambitious goals of Singapore’s space ambitions.

Technical Workshops for Electricals and Structures. Photo: SEDS-NTU
Technical Workshops for Electricals and Structures. Photo: SEDS-NTU
Chapter IV: What’s Next? Finding Our Voice

As a committee, after a year of listening and building, we at SEDS-NTU finally had our ‘aha!’ moment. Conversations with the industry innovators at SEDSConnect, and NTU professors and researchers at the Roundtable revealed to us a clear gap. Singapore has hugely impressive technology, but when we look at the larger, the why and how Singapore operates in space, there is silence.

This leads us to a simple question: As a global hub, why isn’t it that Singapore’s voice is louder in space law, sustainability, and diplomacy?

This year, at SEDS-NTU, we intend to change this. We hope to sharpen our focus and build more than projects through platforms like the AAIS, we want to build arguments. We want to push for more writing on space policy; not just as an academic exercise, but as a contribution from Singapore’s end to the global space conversation.

This year, we want to take a conscious step to position our members as future engineers as well as policymakers who will ensure Singapore is not just a participant in the space age, but will help in defining it. We also aim to launch New Dawn at the culmination of the year. The launch party will be more than just an event, it will prove as the physical result of all that we have done as SEDS-NTU.

We start off SEDS-NTU 25/26 with a focus on building a holistic mix of the engineer, the networker, and now, the policy maker in every member.

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