Research Facilities

The Innovation Lab seeks to apply creativity, high performance computing and advanced machine learning to a range of emerging challenges in cybersecurity, space, signals processing, and modelling.

The centrepiece of UNSW Canberra Space is Australia’s first space mission concurrent engineering design facility.

The Special Collections at UNSW Canberra houses 13,500 rare books and 350+ manuscript collections as well as theses, videos, maps, Commonwealth records, photographs, slides, and negatives. We provide both physical and digital access,

The Advanced Composite Research Unit (ACRU) Composites Laboratory houses an American Autoclave, which is used for manufacturing of high-quality polymer matrix composite components.

The Advanced Composite Research Unit (ACRU) Composites Laboratory houses a reusable vacuum bagging system, including Heatcon composite bonders for thermosetting resin curing.

The Advanced Composite Research Unit (ACRU) Composites Laboratory houses a hot press, which is used for manufacturing of thermoplastic composite parts and specimens.

The Structural Testing Laboratory (soils, concrete and steel) houses a wide variety of testing facilities.

During 2020, the need to reach students normally studying face to face courses on wireless security was prioritised and a strategy enacted to allow UNSW Canberra to create our VPN Wireless Range.

The Two-Stage Light Gas Gun is one of the University's flagship pieces of equipment. It is versatile, boasting three different firing configurations to suit the needs of most high-velocity impact experiment.

The T-ADFA facility is an Australian-developed experimental device capable of generating flows with the speed of up to 12 times the speed of sound at temperatures that can simulate Earth entry conditions and hypersonic air-breathing flight. This facility also has developed state-of-the-art laser-

The Supersonic Wind Tunnel and Shock Tube Laboratory houses a Mach 2 to 3 blowdown supersonic tunnel and two shock tube facilities for steady and non-steady high-speed flow experiments. All three facilities are used for the investigation of steady and non-steady high-speed flows.

We play a vital role in the US Air Force Academy’s world-wide Falcon Telescope Network, housing one of the 12 telescopes. Working in collaboration with institutions from across the globe, the University provides the infrastructure needed to support the Canberra node. 

The Aviation Safety Studio is a space dedicated to flight simulation for teaching concepts such as aviation safety, aircraft performance, aircraft design, and flight stability and control.

The Academy Library houses exceptional print and electronic scholarly resources that support teaching, learning and research at UNSW Canberra.

Our thermal vacuum chamber laboratory replicates space environments and is used to test how objects and materials will behave in those conditions. It features two chambers and solar simulation capability.

A suite of spectrometers is routinely employed for 57Fe- and 169Tm-Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements at room temperature and over the temperature range, 4.2 - 300 K, with a high-temperature furnace (300- 720 K) for 57Fe.

UNSW Canberra Space is equipped with two satellite ground stations that enable us to communicate with our spacecraft. One is located on campus, while a larger industrial-grade satellite is positioned just outside the ACT border in Yass, hosted by our ground station partner Cingulan Space.