Personal Story
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue28 1–31 May 2022
I was born in Truro, England but moved to Canberra with my family when I was 3 years old. I moved around a few times growing up, partially because of my dad’s work in the Royal Australian Navy. Most of my primary school years were spent living in Nowra, and my high school years were spent in Dubbo, NSW. Largely inspired by my dad’s work as a pilot in the Navy and my mum’s work at the Nowra fleet air arm museum, I developed an interest in aviation and aerospace at an early age. Much of my early childhood in Nowra was spent at HMAS Albatross and exploring the Fleet Air Arm museum.
I also developed a strong interest in music and film when I was very young. This led to me beginning to learn to play guitar at the age of 8. Throughout late primary school and high school I developed a love for many genres of music (most notably heavy metal and film music). I quickly formed a strong obsession with metal bands like Iron Maiden (my favourite band) and Children of Bodom, as well as film composers like Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and John Williams. This resulted in me developing ambitions to play guitar in a heavy metal band and compose music for film. I spent most of my high school years in Dubbo obsessively practicing guitar and teaching myself music theory. Although music was my main passion and pursuit in life, I still carried an interest in aviation and aerospace and had a desire to someday experience working in those industries.
After graduating year 12 I moved to Duffy, Canberra. During this time, I pursued my music interests and studied music composition, performance, and audio production at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) as well as gained experience playing in multiple bands across a wide variety of genres. Living so close to Mount Stromlo, I developed an interest in the Mount Stromlo Observatory. During my time at CIT, I increasingly found myself reading about space and watching interesting videos relating to Astronomy and space-related engineering. I also developed an interest in the history of astronomy and its significance in navigation and physics.
Following 3 years of studying music at CIT I began my bachelor’s degree in engineering at ANU. I explored subjects from multiple majors/minors (biomedical, mechatronics, mechanical and optical) to narrow down my interests. As I gradually narrowed down my interests, I found that I was mostly interested in the technology that enables humans to study and venture out into space. Specifically, my interests included planetary astronomy, the electronic and mechatronic control systems for space vessels and satellites, and the biological impacts of long duration space travel and survival on other planets. Throughout my degree I continued to pursue music and began working as a film composer on local short film projects whilst studying.
In 2020, I completed my honours thesis under the supervision of Professor Celine D’Orgeville and Dr James Webb at the Mount Stromlo Observatory Advanced Instrumentation Technology Centre (AITC). For my project, I designed and built a phase locked loop (PLL) radio frequency synthesiser for use on the EOS Satellite and Debris tracking station 1.8m telescope laser guide star adaptive optics system. This PLL circuit is used, in combination with an electro optics modulator, to modulate the frequency of the 589.158nm (Sodium D2a) laser source to generate the Sodium D2b (sideband) and optically repump the mesospheric sodium atoms for increased photon return, resulting in a brighter guide star.
Through my thesis work, I developed a strong interest in embedded electronics, microcontrollers and other forms of digital control systems. It was my thesis work which allowed me, at the end of my degree, to finally know exactly what kind of work I wanted to pursue in my engineering career. I wanted to design and build the electronic and digital control systems that allow us to study, explore and survive in space.
At the start of 2021, I moved to Melbourne and completed a one-year internship program with the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) where I worked on infantry personal protection programs.
After finishing my internship with DSTG, I returned to Canberra and (as of April 2022) have begun working as an Instrumentation Engineer under the supervision of Jamie Gilbert in the AITC Detector Electronics and Control group. In this role, I will be taking on a variety of electronics related work across multiple AITC projects, including working on the Siding Spring Observatory 2.3m telescope upgrade and Moon to Mars projects.
I am very excited to meet everybody at Mount Stromlo and make many new friends over the coming weeks, as well as catching up with many familiar faces. I am also always keen to talk about anything music and film related, and love getting recommendations for new music to listen to.
David Ashworth
