A unique collaboration with Carl Robertshaw

On the occasion of his talk at Birmingham Design Festival this week, we would like to take a moment to celebrate the unique collaboration between Oxford Space Systems and Carl Robertshaw. Carl is a transdisciplinary designer and artist with over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of performance, engineering and fine art. An expert in designing and making kites, his skills are being applied to our deployable antennas, with several of them now flying in space!

Carl studied graphic Design at the world-famous Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London. Carlʼs final year thesis concentrated on the physical and conceptual design of sport kites, specifically colour and pattern arrangement of panel graphics and how they affected the kitesʼ behaviour. Carl has been making kites for over 25 years. He lives and works in London designing and consulting on fabric structures for events and architects using kites as his main inspiration.

Carl is involved across live events, TV, theatre, gallery and installation design, stadium shows, architecture and space engineering. He is the only 5-time World Sport Kite Champion and now mentors the competing teams. Carl has collaborated with artists such as Björk, Kylie Minogue and has been commissioned by MoMA NY, The Hayward Gallery and The London Design Biennale. Carl was instrumental in developing The Hatchling - potentially the world's largest non-mechanical flying puppet, which was leading the procession for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant last week.

The Oxford Space Systems collaboration with Carl started a few years ago and his kite making expertise was especially  valuable in the development of our successful  Helical and Yagi antennas for cubesats. Carl also supported the design of the cable network that helps form the parabolic reflector surface for our large offset reflector antenna . As the space sector continue to develop and grow, there is an ever-increasing need for a diversity of skills and experience to enable new solutions. The collaboration with Carl demonstrates how expertise from a very different sector can push the development of innovative space technologies.