UNSW Canberra opens Australia's first space mission design facility
Australia's first national space mission design facility was officially opened today by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr at UNSW Canberra.
UNSW Canberra Space director Russell Boyce says the new Australian National Concurrent Design Facility (ANCDF) complements Australian National University's spacecraft test facilities and means Canberra now has the capability to develop space missions from start to finish.
"For the first time, Australia has a facility that will enable spacecraft design engineers and scientists to rapidly design and determine the technical and economic viability of proposed space missions," Professor Boyce said.
"Just yesterday, we announced the successful launch into orbit of our first cube satellite, 'Buccaneer', which was developed jointly with scientists from Defence Science Technology (DST). This is the first of many UNSW Canberra missions.
Previously: Is It Time for Australia to Launch its Own Space Agency?
Australia to Create its Own National Space Agency
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They're piping out our space data!
Any nation that hopes to have a space program needs to be able to keep an eye on its orbiting assets at all times. This means that Australia has become a key link in the global chain of ground-based tracking stations.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a deep space tracking facility at Tidbinbilla in the ACT, managed by the CSIRO, and the European Space Agency (ESA) has one in New Norcia, Western Australia. The New Norcia station plays a further role as it picks up and tracks the ESA launches from French Guiana as they curve across the Indian Ocean on their way to Earth orbit or beyond.
This means that Australia plays a critical role in many other countries' space programs. Right now, about 40 space missions – including deep space planetary explorers, Mars rovers, solar observatories and astronomical space observatories – are routinely downlinking their data through radio dishes on Australian soil. This uniquely acquired data is then piped out of the country to the eagerly waiting US and European scientific communities, bypassing our own.
If Australia is to capitalise on its strengths in space tracking as well as space science, and is to get on board with the burgeoning commercial space industry, it's time that we considered forming a space agency of our own.
The federal government has announced that it will establish a new national agency to grow Australia's domestic space industry.
A working group chaired by former CSIRO chief Megan Clark will provide advice on the possible scope and structure of the agency to the federal government by the end of March next year.
Senator Michaelia Cash, the acting Minister of Industry, Innovation and Science, will on Tuesday tell the International Astronautical Congress that Australia will not have a NASA but an agency "right for our nation, right for our industry".
[...] The government made its announcement on the same day Labor outlined its own plans to boost Australia's space industry through the establishment of a space science and industry agency from 2020.
Opposition science spokesman Senator Kim Carr said Labor would also create a space industry innovation council and a space industry supplier advocate to bolster opportunities for investment.
"It is in Australia's national interest to build our own capabilities in these areas, not only to meet current and future needs, but also to mitigate the risk of these services becoming unavailable," he said.
[Australia's Canberra site is one of three that make up the Deep Space Network that NASA uses to communicate with spacecraft. See Deep Space Network Now for real-time information on which spacecraft each dish is communicating with. --martyb]
Australia's long talked about space agency may come into existence soon:
The government will set aside $50m to fund Australia's first dedicated space agency, according to senior insiders. The ABC on Thursday reported that funding for the space agency was guaranteed in the budget on Tuesday. It is understood $50m will be given to the fledgling agency as "seed funding", with the intention that the majority of the agency's funding will come from the private sector.
Megan Clark, a former head of the [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)] who this year completed a comprehensive review of Australia's space sector, will lead the agency, the ABC reported.
Prof Alan Duffy, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University, said the agency would be primarily focused on research and economic development. "Rather than putting people into space, it will be focused on creating jobs for those people on earth," he said. "Space is a global sector worth some $420bn and grows faster than China's economy – it's something we want to be a part of. The aim is to develop commercial opportunities so Australian start-ups and companies gain access to this very valuable sector."
There are already space-related start-ups in Australia, but the government hopes to boost Australia's share of the growing global space market from 0.8% to 1.8%.
Also at Science Magazine.
See also: Australia is late to the space agency party, but that's not necessarily a bad thing
(Score: 4, Funny) by Grishnakh on Monday November 27 2017, @08:19PM (4 children)
What's the point of this? Australia was the 7th nation in space with a satellite in the 60s, but after that completely abandoned all efforts and hasn't actually done anything in space at all since then (unlike Canada which at least made some cool arms), and frankly doesn't have a large enough population to support this activity. Isn't it a little late to be doing a me-too? They should just leave it to the countries that have bothered to continue to work on space programs: US, Russia, China, Japan, and India to name the biggest ones, but even countries like Italy, Korea, France, and Ukraine have launch capability, and really pathetically, countries like Vietnam, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Peru, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Bolivia, and even North Korea have space agencies that operate satellites. When your country is being beaten by North Korea in space capability, you might as well admit you're a loser and throw in the towel. Leave the satellites to more advanced nations like Peru and Sri Lanka.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday November 27 2017, @08:48PM (2 children)
Furthermore what exactly is it?
I read that as..... drum roll .... An office building.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday November 27 2017, @08:57PM (1 child)
So they're going to spend a bunch of money on an office building to have a bunch of people run around making Powerpoint slides talking about doing stuff that more advanced nations like Peru have already done, but not actually do anything useful?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @11:14PM
No.
No Powerpoint slides. At least, not that many.
They're gonna create Word files and Excel sheets.
Which is, like, totally different, mate.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday November 28 2017, @06:46AM
I'll admit we are a loser in that space. Even the kiwis beat us to it [abc.net.au], in fact this probably a knee jerk reaction to that plus an opportunity for, ahem, to spend some tax payers money on office space and maybe some creative sub-contracting.
However, conceptually there nothing wrong with starting so late in the game. Technology has changed so much that sometimes it is actually better to get into the game late with a clean slate than being weighed down with legacy baggage (technology wise, bureaucracy-wise, etc.). You'd be surprise at how a clean slate and a tight budget can sometimes drive innovation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday November 28 2017, @12:15AM (1 child)
Beyond satire..?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pkbim3PsyU [youtube.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 28 2017, @02:27AM
Satire? "Yes, minister" was satire.
Mate, wake up..."Utopia" is a documentary!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford