Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference

Emaad Paracha – From Toronto to Monaco

Committed towards his lifelong dream of traveling to space, Emaad Paracha conquers the space-tech industry by helping build a telescope approaching Hubble’s capabilities but 3000x cheaper.

Emaad Paracha with the SuperBIT telescope in Texas
Emaad Paracha with the SuperBIT telescope in Texas

Toronto, Canada based Emaad Paracha always knew he wanted to do something space related, and space-tech just seemed to be the perfect fit. Emaad grew up wanting to be an astronaut, and even learnt Russian in high school because proficiency in Russian is an important asset to be an astronaut.

But the road to be an astronaut is long, so in the meantime Emaad tried to get himself as close to space as possible. He knows it is the next frontier and there’s a lot of development and new projects in space, and he would love to see them and be a part of the space revolution and the new space age.

Do you want to travel to space?

Definitely! Like I mentioned before, I even learnt Russian in high school to be prepared to be an astronaut, and I’m working on my PhD, which would help a lot as well. Along with that, I’m planning to get other technical certifications, from a pilot’s license to scuba diving, essentially to prepare me for when the time is right.

Being actively involved in the space industry helps a lot as well, and it would be a life goal come true to be able to go to space eventually.

Working hand-in-hand with the University of Toronto and NASA, Emaad is a valuable member of the SuperBIT.

SuperBIT is a near-space balloon-borne imaging telescope that flew up at 33 km connected to a NASA Super Pressure balloon, a balloon larger than a football stadium.

It combines the advantages of both space and ground-based telescopes, with the cost-effectiveness of ground-based telescopes (not having to launch it on a rocket, less need for redundancy, and more), and the advantages of being in space-like stratosphere with reduced atmospheric interference (above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere), allowing for diffraction-limited imaging.

SuperBIT telescope
A preliminary image of the Messier 83, also know as the The Southern Pinwheel spiral galaxy, taken by the SuperBIT telescope flying on a Super Pressure Balloon. Credit: NASA/SuperBIT

What inspired the development of SuperBIT, and what are the primary scientific goals and objectives of this project?

As balloon technology matured, it was apparent that there’s a lot of scientific potential for diffraction-limited imaging from a balloon-borne observatory. 

SuperBIT’s idea was initially conceived by my advisor at the University of Toronto in collaboration with other researchers and professors from Princeton University, NASA JPL, and Durham University to explore this idea and to build a highly stable balloon-borne imaging telescope that can be cost-effective but yield science rivaling space-based telescopes like Hubble.

SuperBIT’s scientific aim was to study weak lensing, which is the study of how light bends around large galaxy clusters, to make inferences about properties and the abundance of dark matter and to improve our cosmological model of the universe.

SuperBIT telescope
A preliminary image of the Messier 104, also known as The Sombrero Galaxy, taken by the SuperBIT telescope flying on a Super Pressure Balloon. Credit: NASA/SuperBIT

How does this platform work, and what advantages does it offer for astronomical observations?

SuperBIT is attached to NASA’s Super Pressure balloon, a balloon that’s bigger than a football stadium, while floating at 33 km up in the air. SuperBIT combines the best of both worlds when it comes to both ground-based and space-based telescopes. 

Since it is in the stratosphere, at 33 km, it is above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere, allowing for high-resolution imaging, rivaling space-based telescopes. And since it is launched on a balloon, it doesn’t cost as much as space-based telescopes. 

This helps with making astronomy accessible because right now the only comparable space-based or airborne telescope is Hubble, and it is heavily oversubscribed with requests from different universities.

Launching SuperBIT and showcasing something like SuperBIT is possible helps in allowing more cosmological research, with the same quality as Hubble but at a fraction of the cost. Hubble’s cost has been more than 15 billion dollars to date, while SuperBIT is in the 5-10 million range, nearly 3000x cheaper!

Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference
Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference

One of the key features of SuperBIT is its adaptability. How does the telescope adapt to different observations and scientific targets?

A telescope like SuperBIT has another big advantage that it can be iterated on as years go by, drastically saving on cost and allowing us to upgrade it year over year. Hubble, which is in space, requires expensive maintenance and needs astronauts to actually go up to perform major upgrades. 

For SuperBIT and similar telescopes, we can recover the telescope after the flight and improve upon its technology on a shorter timescale. This also allows us to reuse as much as possible after every flight, minimizing on cost too.

Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference
Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference

Could you describe the technical challenges involved in developing and operating a balloon-borne telescope, and how SuperBIT addresses these challenges?

Lots of technical and operational challenges. We need to make sure every single thing works, from motors, cables, and communication equipment to our software programs. Everything needs to work . That involves a lot of testing, “fake flights” that we run on the ground, communication tests, and so much more. 

There’s a rule of thumb my professor has, which is that if something hasn’t been tested, it will fail. So we need to make sure everything is tested and verified. There’s also risks with the balloon launches, balloon launches can be scrapped because of bad weather, and those are often setbacks we face. Thankfully not with SuperBIT, but sometimes the balloons have also leaked, which can cause an early end to flights. 

That’s something that’s out of our hands but it’s always on our minds. But we make sure not to be discouraged by that and ensure we build the best telescope we can and work on what’s in our control.

Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference
Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference

SuperBIT has conducted successful test flights. Can you share any significant findings or discoveries made during these missions and their implications for astrophysics?

There were several test flights for SuperBIT, two out of Timmins, Canada with CNES and the Canadian Space Agency, and two out of Palestine, Texas with NASA. These were mostly engineering test flights to ensure that we can operate such an observatory in the stratosphere and more importantly be able to achieve the stability required to take high-resolution images. 

These test flights were important for SuperBIT before we embarked on our science flight because these flights ensured we could recover the payload (since they were over land) and allowed us to fix issues before our main flight from New Zealand that was planned for 100 days.

SuperBIT is a collaborative project involving multiple institutions and countries. Can you tell us about the collaborative aspects of the project and the role your team plays in this global effort?

There is lots of teams involved in SuperBIT and they all add their own respective expertise in each and every department. 

I was part of the team from the University of Toronto, and other collaborators included Princeton University, Durham University, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, CNES, and NASA JPL. Projects like SuperBIT work well when there’s a collaboration, and it helps to have several great minds working together. 

NASA, CNES, and the Canadian Space Agency helped with the test and final science flights, and we, at the University of Toronto, along with others at Princeton, Durham, and NASA JPL, helped build SuperBIT itself and also plan for the scientific goals. 

Teamwork is key, and SuperBIT showed how important and fruitful it is to have an amazing team.

Emaad Paracha with the SuperBIT team
Emaad Paracha with the SuperBIT team

Looking to the future, what are the upcoming missions and scientific goals for SuperBIT, and how do you envision its role in advancing our understanding of the universe?

SuperBIT was a pathfinder mission to prove we can have a balloon-borne high-resolution telescope in the stratosphere. 

The next step will be both to analyze SuperBIT data and to plan for GigaBIT, a Gigapixel version of SuperBIT, aiming to have resolution as good as Hubble, capable of amazing science. 

GigaBIT is currently in the planning phases and design work is being done now, but we see balloon-borne astrophysics as a very likely future for cost-effective high-resolution observatories, making astronomy more accessible.

Do you think that space tourism helps to accelerate the industry?

Significantly. Previously people would never think of going to space unless you’re with a national organization, and likewise for space innovation too. 

Even if you wanted to launch a satellite you couldn’t do that on your own or commercially. However, with more space tourism and innovation in space technology, space is becoming more accessible than ever. And that helps accelerate the industry and show to everyone that space is within our reach.

Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference
Emaad Paracha at the ELEVATE Space & Sustainability Conference

Do you think ELEVATE can help people to understand better space technology and sustainability?

I think ELEVATE has and can play an amazing role in promoting space technology and space sustainability education. 

By bringing together people from the industry who are actively involved in innovating in space and having an engaging platform with thoughtful discussions, ELEVATE has established an amazing platform, especially in Europe, to connect people and to promote innovations in space technology, research, and exploration.

Did you like the audience questions at ELEVATE?

A lot! Both from the professionals in the space industry and students as well. I especially loved the level of engagement with the students and seeing their curiosity in space and the amazing questions they asked. 

It’s great to see their drive and I’m very excited to see how much innovation we’re going to see in the future in space.

What would you suggest to someone who is not really interested in space?

To look at space with an open mind and understand that there’s tremendous opportunities for mankind in exploring and studying space. 

Space is our gateway to better communications, the answer to depleting natural resources, and above all, as we saw with the International Space Station, it is a platform for us to put aside our differences and work together as one human race. 

Projects like the ISS have been pinnacle examples of what humans can achieve when we work together, and subsequent progress in satellite technology and more have fast-tracked our development on Earth (now we have internet available everywhere, GPS everywhere and more). 

Likewise, academically, there’s a lot of collaboration and space-related projects often bring several international teams together. 

There’s so much potential in exploring and studying space, and while doing so, it helps us humans forget our differences and work together. Which I think is the most beautiful part of exploring space!“


Read the full and illustrated interview in the Winter 2023 edition of the Living in Monaco, the Monaco Residents’ Magazine.


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