British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke formulated three adages that are known as ‘Clarke’s three laws,’ the third of which is perhaps the most widely cited: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.

It’s a phrase which aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, Edward Robinson, cites when describing his early reactions to watching modern space technology in action at the impressionable age of 15. 

“I was in year 10, and I’d always been interested in space, because it’s fascinating as a person in primary school and high school, you can’t not be fascinated by it, right?” Ed shared.

“But it wasn’t a huge passion. 

“It wasn’t until I saw this video on Instagram of one of the SpaceX rockets landing on a ship after putting a satellite in space…I was like: ‘you can’t do that, it’s got to be CGI, there’s no way’.”

Ed was in disbelief. He found the idea of a rocket the size of a 21-storey building, landing on a tiny ship floating in the ocean after returning from space, to be quite absurd. 

While there was a time such a feat might have been viewed as a work of science fiction, this is proof that the age of space technology is well and truly upon us. 

This one extraordinary moment sparked in Ed an “overnight obsession” with all things outer space. Today, has evolved to him being a well-established player in South Australia’s Space Industry, with his company Robinson Aerospace, creating a product that aims to inspire and train the next generation of space tech enthusiasts. 

“There was this instant click of: ‘hell or high water, I’m going to work on that. I want to work on stuff that goes to space’.”

A Kalbeeba local at the time, from his early years at Sandy Creek Primary School to high school at Faith Lutheran College, Tanunda, Ed was fascinated with building things – from cardboard boxes to Lego, he found a way to construct whatever contraption his mind could conjure. 

Such skills eventually translated well to his newfound interstellar ambitions, as he started learning the fundamentals of electronics at school, under the tutelage of Design and Technology teacher Jason Rosenzweig. Ed would take the knowledge home, then extend it by watching online tutorials. 

At just 15, Ed realised the next 10 years would include finishing school, studying at university then working as an undergraduate – and decided he didn’t want to wait that long to work on what he coins the “cool stuff”. 

Soon every spare minute was spent either gaining knowledge and practical application with ‘space equipment’ or on raising funds to finance his endeavours. Entrepreneurial efforts were diverse: from selling t-shirts to tech parts. 

Although the hands-on projects took a back seat when school work ramped up in year 12, this was in fact when Ed made his first Cube Satellite (CubeSat) as an electronics project. 

“It’s a 10cm cube-shaped satellite. There (are) thousands of CubeSats in space right now doing things like weather monitoring, security surveillance, university experiments, whatever it might be…” Ed explained. 

“…and my goal was to make a prototype CubeSat that wouldn’t go to space, because a kid in year 12 couldn’t afford to put something into space – but (that) would give me the necessary knowledge and understanding of how satellites work, what’s in them, what’s required to design them, all that kind of stuff.”

The venture became the basis for Ed built Robinson Aerospace Systems – manufacturing education-based CubeSat building kits, called RASCube, to be distributed to schools and university students. The concept was to give young people the practical introduction to space tech that Ed had always desired. 

Founded the year after Ed finished high school in 2022, Robinson Aerospace’s first workshop was a cornered off section of his Dad’s shed at Kalbeeba, where he worked on the logistics of the RASCube while securing investors for the company. 

One of Ed’s earliest collaborators on the project was a fellow Barossan, Simon Rosenzweig. 

Now Robinson Aerospace’s lead engineer, Simon and Ed began their partnership with long meetings at the Lyndoch Bakery going over designs and technical logistics. Though Ed admits they probably weren’t great customers, only ever ordering a cappuccino and an iced coffee respectively to fuel their discussions. 

Having secured investment from a local in the Barossa Valley, after many sleepless nights, Ed launched the RASCube kit in 2023 – which has since been distributed to students across the globe, thanks to Ed and his team of early-career engineers and educators. 

But the itch of the atmosphere soon came calling, and the decision was made, as a demonstration of RASCube’s satellite legitimacy, to send one up into orbit in 2025. 

“The idea behind that was: the RASCube is a replica satellite, we need to show the students that what they’re using is a replica satellite – and what better way to do that than to take that and put it into freaking space?” Ed said. 

The process of launching something into space from earth is not a straightforward or simple one from any perspective – something which Ed was viscerally aware of. 

Back in high school, Ed’s first ‘launch’ of a replica space grade rocket took place off the cricket pitch one weekend at Faith Lutheran College – the launch he says, couldn’t have been worse.

Ed explained how it was quite the scene, with the rocket catching fire without even making it into the sky, and he had to run over with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze. 

Thankfully, aside from a few logistical, administrative and financial fires – the RASCube-1 made it into orbit in June 2025, to a rousing applause from the Robinson Aerospace warehouse and excitement from students who had constructed the very same apparatus in their classrooms all over the world. 

It was a launch not just to space, but one which secured Robinson Aerospace Systems’ place as a key player of the current space age – providing national news exposure and listed as one of the fastest growing start-ups in the country. 

Following the metaphorical and literal heights achieved last year, Ed advised that 2026 is appropriately focused on continuing the company’s primary purpose of building and distributing the next generation of RASCube kits. 

But the pull of space is never too far away – with rumblings of a Robinson Aerospace Lunar landing on the horizon, Ed is really continuing to prove to himself how ‘magic’ can truly become reality with the right formula and some strategic engineering.  

“The thing about Sci-Fi movies, is the technology you see in those movies usually becomes real eventually, right?” Ed mused. 

“You think about things like iPhone, Apple Watch, even portable computers, these things, a lot of defence technology that’s coming out, AI is a big one…it is impossible to have an original idea of technology because even if you’re the first one to do it, and it sounds crazy, somebody put it in a sci-fi movie at some stage.”

Perhaps, even if Ed doesn’t create the next astronomic breakthrough that is ‘indistinguishable from magic’, it just could be that he has inspired, or will inspire the next engineer that does.