Round 3 winners for the Australian Space Research Program have been announced on the 25th of November 2010. This rounds grants have seen 3 winners, one in Stream A - Space Education Development, and two in Space Science and Innovation, sharing $9 Million in funding.
For Stream A, a consortium led by Flinders University that includes the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services, the South Australian Museum, the Northern Advanced Manufacturing Industry Group, and Education Services Australia, will undertake a project called "Place and Space: Perspective in Earth Observations". The project, which will receive $950,753, will train 40 teachers in earth observation sciences, and assist over 400 secondary students undertake research projects in space-related topics.
The Second project, which will be led by Lockheed Martin Australia, and includes ANU National Computation Infrastructure, Geoscience Australia, Victoria Partnership for Advanced Computing Ltd, and the CRC for Spatial Information, is titled "Unlocking the LANDSAT Archive for Future Challenges". With funding of $3,472,965, the project will enhance Earth Observation ground based infrastructure, to enable ongoing processing of the national LANDSAT archive. It also hopes to make satellite imagery based environment data in a form usable by researchers, policy makers and private sector.
The Final Project will be led by the University of South Australia, and includes EMS Satcom Pacivfic Pty Ltd, COM DEV International Ltd, DSTO, Sage Automation, CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. The project, which will receive $4,998,996 funding, will allow the transmission of data from field instruments to researchers live via satellite, by developing and demonstrating a space-ready comunications payload and complete ground system for use in marine monitoring, defence sensor monitoring and industrial automation scenarios.
For further information, head over to the space.gov.au website or direct to the detail here. This takes the total awarded under the ASRP to $34,222,727 with 11 projects funded so far.
Congratulations to all involved!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research opens at UNSW
The University of New South Wales has launched the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER), using funding from an Australian Space Research Program round 2 grant.
The ACSER will look at developing technologies for Navigation, Earth Observation, Security and space vehicle engineering. It will also help develop and sustain Australian space capabilities and skills, and will play a crucial role in helping develop the Australian Space Industry as a whole. The centre was officially opened by former NASA shuttle astronaut Dr Jan Davis on the 22nd of November.
ACSER Director, Associate Professor Andrew Dempster, has also written an interesting opinion piece that has been published in Fairfax newspapers last week which can be found here highlighting how Australia was relying on the China National Space Administration for bushfire imagery during the Victorian Bushfires in 2009.
The ACSER will look at developing technologies for Navigation, Earth Observation, Security and space vehicle engineering. It will also help develop and sustain Australian space capabilities and skills, and will play a crucial role in helping develop the Australian Space Industry as a whole. The centre was officially opened by former NASA shuttle astronaut Dr Jan Davis on the 22nd of November.
ACSER Director, Associate Professor Andrew Dempster, has also written an interesting opinion piece that has been published in Fairfax newspapers last week which can be found here highlighting how Australia was relying on the China National Space Administration for bushfire imagery during the Victorian Bushfires in 2009.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
APRSAF-17 kicks off in Melbourne
The 17th Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency forum has kicked off today in Melbourne, with delegates from 30 countries attending the forum. The forum, hosted by the Australian Space Policy Unit, has the them “The role of space technology and industry in addressing climate change”.
The Forum was welcomed today by Australian Space Minister Kim Carr - who highlighted his governments efforts to invest in the space sector and build up international partnerships.
The Forum will host four main working group sessions in parallel, including:
- Earth Observation Working Group
- Space Environment Utilisation (SEU) Working Group
- Space Education Awareness (SEA) Working Group
- Communication Satellite Applications Working Group
For more information about the APRSAF-17 Forum, head over to their website here.
Friday, November 19, 2010
ASICC Changes its name to the Space Industry Association of Australia
Following the ASICC’s AGM held in Sydney on the 17th of November, the Australian Space Industry Chamber of Commerce has voted unanimously to change its name to the Space Industry Association of Australia Inc.
In other news from the AGM, 19 nominations were received for the 15 available positions on the Executive Council. Those elected include: David Ball, Bill Barrett, Brett Biddington, Michael Davis, Daniel Faber, Roger Franzen, Kirby Ikin, Jeff Kasparian, Shannon Ryan, Chris Schacht, Jack Scott, Glen Tindall, Ian Tuohy, Stephen Ward and Shaun Wilson.
The AGM also saw two sub-groups convened for the first time – one Satcom sub-group, and one Earth Observation sub-group.
The ASICC – or as it will now be know, the SIAA is the leading voice for the Australian Space Industry, and brings together many of Australia’s space industry leaders. All of these new developments bode well for the strengthening of the overall Space Sector in Australia.
For those interested in learning more about the ASICC / SIAA, or joining them to promote the Australian Space Industry, head over to their website here.
In other news from the AGM, 19 nominations were received for the 15 available positions on the Executive Council. Those elected include: David Ball, Bill Barrett, Brett Biddington, Michael Davis, Daniel Faber, Roger Franzen, Kirby Ikin, Jeff Kasparian, Shannon Ryan, Chris Schacht, Jack Scott, Glen Tindall, Ian Tuohy, Stephen Ward and Shaun Wilson.
The AGM also saw two sub-groups convened for the first time – one Satcom sub-group, and one Earth Observation sub-group.
The ASICC – or as it will now be know, the SIAA is the leading voice for the Australian Space Industry, and brings together many of Australia’s space industry leaders. All of these new developments bode well for the strengthening of the overall Space Sector in Australia.
For those interested in learning more about the ASICC / SIAA, or joining them to promote the Australian Space Industry, head over to their website here.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Engineers Australia offers a Scholarship to the Southern Hemisphere Summer Space Program
The National Committee on Space Engineering of Engineers Australia has announced that they will be offering a scholarship to the International Space Universities Southern Hemisphere Summer Space Program to be held at the University of South Australia in January next year.
The Scholarship covers the entire course fee of AUD$9,900 and is open to"Engineering graduates and engineering undergraduates in the final two years of their engineering studies who are resident in Australia and who have applied for enrollment in the Southern Hemisphere Summer Space Program"
All those interested should head over here - the deadline for applications is the 30th of November, so be quick!
Woomera Interim Report Released
On the 5th of November, the Australian Government Review of the Woomera Prohibited Area Interim Report was Released, and can be found here.
The report examines the access rights of the different stakeholders in Woomera, and if the management could be improved for all parties, in particular, improving mining access to the Woomera Prohibited Area, that has the potential to exploit large mineral reserves.
The Review was commissioned by the Government in May 2010, and was conducted by Dr Allan Hawke AC.
The review consulted with many parties, in particular Defence, the South Australian Government and the mining industry, and even the Space Policy Unit.
Whilst Woomera is seen as one of Australia’s best defence and aerospace assents due to the incredibly large testing range and significant Space heritage, the Space Policy Unit indicated “it is not aware of any specific civil or commercial space activities, national, or international with definite plans that involve the WPA”, whilst acknowledging the activities of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, the University of Queensland and the South Australian Space School at Woomera.
The Report states:
“The WPA attracts civil and commercial space activity because of its large size and remote location. The Commonwealth Government acknowledges, however, that the economic benefits of this usage is limited and need only remain a priority to the extent it is compatible with other uses of the WPA."
Hopefully, the increased mining access to Woomera will work nicely side-by-side with any future Space Activities.
The Interim Report is available at www.defence.gov.au/woomerareview, and anyone interested in submitting for the final report can do so before the 3rd of December 2010.
The report examines the access rights of the different stakeholders in Woomera, and if the management could be improved for all parties, in particular, improving mining access to the Woomera Prohibited Area, that has the potential to exploit large mineral reserves.
The Review was commissioned by the Government in May 2010, and was conducted by Dr Allan Hawke AC.
The review consulted with many parties, in particular Defence, the South Australian Government and the mining industry, and even the Space Policy Unit.
Whilst Woomera is seen as one of Australia’s best defence and aerospace assents due to the incredibly large testing range and significant Space heritage, the Space Policy Unit indicated “it is not aware of any specific civil or commercial space activities, national, or international with definite plans that involve the WPA”, whilst acknowledging the activities of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, the University of Queensland and the South Australian Space School at Woomera.
The Report states:
“The WPA attracts civil and commercial space activity because of its large size and remote location. The Commonwealth Government acknowledges, however, that the economic benefits of this usage is limited and need only remain a priority to the extent it is compatible with other uses of the WPA."
Hopefully, the increased mining access to Woomera will work nicely side-by-side with any future Space Activities.
The Interim Report is available at www.defence.gov.au/woomerareview, and anyone interested in submitting for the final report can do so before the 3rd of December 2010.
Doubt Cast on Bigelow Aerospace agreement with Australia
Back on October 20th, in my SpaceBoomerang post here, I reported that Australia had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bigelow Aerospace – quoting an article from Space.com here.
A separate article on Spacenews.com here also mentions the agreements, and is even mentioned on the Bigelow Aerospace website .
However, SpaceBoomerang has come to understand that there may not be such an agreement with the Australian Government. If this is the case, it is quite surprising to see Robert Bigelow quoted as saying (Source: Space News)
Robert Bigelow, founder and chief executive of North Las Vegas, Nev.-based Bigelow Aerospace, said the company has signed memoranda of understanding with the governments of Australia, Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These agreements are not financial commitments, he said, adding that he hopes to secure such commitments by 2012.
SpaceBoomerang calls upon both Bigelow Aerospace to clarify whether such an agreement exists or not, and whether they have been misquoted in these articles.
A separate article on Spacenews.com here also mentions the agreements, and is even mentioned on the Bigelow Aerospace website .
However, SpaceBoomerang has come to understand that there may not be such an agreement with the Australian Government. If this is the case, it is quite surprising to see Robert Bigelow quoted as saying (Source: Space News)
Robert Bigelow, founder and chief executive of North Las Vegas, Nev.-based Bigelow Aerospace, said the company has signed memoranda of understanding with the governments of Australia, Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These agreements are not financial commitments, he said, adding that he hopes to secure such commitments by 2012.
SpaceBoomerang calls upon both Bigelow Aerospace to clarify whether such an agreement exists or not, and whether they have been misquoted in these articles.
Australia – US Space Situational Awareness Partnership Statement of Principles
Following on from last the recent agreements between Australia and the United States of America, here is the text for the Statement of Principles. (Source: Minister for Defence website)
AUSTRALIAN-UNITED STATES SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS PARTNERSHIP
Statement of Principles
- The Space Situational Awareness Partnership builds on the long history of close defense space cooperation between Australia and the United States that has formed a cornerstone of our alliance for over four decades.
- Our two Governments will work together in the spirit of cooperation on the space situational awareness partnership for the mutual benefit of our countries’ national security.
- Recognizing the importance of space situational awareness to protect our national interests, and support global peace and security, Australia and the United States will investigate the potential for jointly establishing and operating space situational awareness facilities in Australia to support the United States space surveillance network and to support the development of Australia’s space situational awareness and mission assurance capability.
- Understanding the vital role of space surveillance to protect our countries’ national interests, Australia and the United States will share the necessary space situational awareness information and technical data, and recognize each country’s space situational awareness priorities.
- In making use of the space situational awareness joint facilities, each government will respect the sovereignty and respective laws of the other.
- In recognition of Australian sovereignty, the contemplated space situational awareness joint facilities will operate in a manner that ensures the Australian Government has full knowledge of, and concurs with, any activities being undertaken in, through or from Australian territory.
- In the construction and operation of any space situational awareness joint facility, each Government will comply with its relevant laws and regulations.
- This statement of principles will form the basis for establishing the space situational awareness partnership and our nations’ expanded defense space cooperation activities.
For Australia For the United States
The Hon Stephen Smith Dr. Robert M. Gates
Minister for Defence United States Secretary of Defense
SpaceBoomerang gets a mention on Aviation Week
Great to See that SpaceBoomerang got a mention in Michael A. Taverna’s Aviation Week article “Australia, U.S. Join on Space Situational Awareness”.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Australia and the United States sign a Civil Space Cooperation Framework Agreement
During a meeting between Australian and United States Government Officials in Washington DC on the 26th and 27th of October, Australia and the United Sates signed a joint "Statement on Bilateral Cooperation in the Civil Use of GPS and Civil Space Activities", reinforcing and expanding previous agreements.
Within the meeting, officials reviewed the progress achieved so far on the "Joint Delegation Statement on Cooperation in the Civil Use of GPS and Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) Systems and Applications" signed in April 2007.
According to the announcement: "The first day's discussion covered the broad and growing use of the U.S. Global Positioning system (GPS) and its augmentations in the air transport field, the installation of ground monitoring stations that will improve performance of current and emerging Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and applications for GPS including national spatial reference systems, weather forecasting, climate observation, space weather, and important economic uses of GPS time. The second day's discussion focused on U.S. and Australian space policy developments, long term sustainability of space activities and bilateral space science cooperation."
The announcement goes on to say "The framework will encompass collaboration on important space applications such as satellite-based land and sea remote sensing, climate change research and meteorology, and space-based PNT, as well as opportunities for early discussions on new systems and future civil space-related missions under development." which is very much in line with the Australian Space Policy Unit's current interests.
“Civil space infrastructure is critical to all Australians. Every day, we use civil space systems for applications ranging from GPS navigation, to land and sea remote sensing. This agreement formalises Australia’s continued access,” said Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr (or Minister for Space as I like to call him).
The US and Australia will review cooperative civil space related activities between the countries anually, and engage in perioudic consultation to pursue the goals of the proposed core framework.
The statement can be found here, with the Media Release found here.
This is the second major space announcement within a few days between Australia and the United States, one military, one civilian. It is a strong sign of the current US administration's goal to engage with more international partners in Space, and such tight cooperation is likely to have a large influence on the Australian Space Policy under development.
Within the meeting, officials reviewed the progress achieved so far on the "Joint Delegation Statement on Cooperation in the Civil Use of GPS and Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) Systems and Applications" signed in April 2007.
According to the announcement: "The first day's discussion covered the broad and growing use of the U.S. Global Positioning system (GPS) and its augmentations in the air transport field, the installation of ground monitoring stations that will improve performance of current and emerging Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and applications for GPS including national spatial reference systems, weather forecasting, climate observation, space weather, and important economic uses of GPS time. The second day's discussion focused on U.S. and Australian space policy developments, long term sustainability of space activities and bilateral space science cooperation."
The announcement goes on to say "The framework will encompass collaboration on important space applications such as satellite-based land and sea remote sensing, climate change research and meteorology, and space-based PNT, as well as opportunities for early discussions on new systems and future civil space-related missions under development." which is very much in line with the Australian Space Policy Unit's current interests.
“Civil space infrastructure is critical to all Australians. Every day, we use civil space systems for applications ranging from GPS navigation, to land and sea remote sensing. This agreement formalises Australia’s continued access,” said Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr (or Minister for Space as I like to call him).
The US and Australia will review cooperative civil space related activities between the countries anually, and engage in perioudic consultation to pursue the goals of the proposed core framework.
The statement can be found here, with the Media Release found here.
This is the second major space announcement within a few days between Australia and the United States, one military, one civilian. It is a strong sign of the current US administration's goal to engage with more international partners in Space, and such tight cooperation is likely to have a large influence on the Australian Space Policy under development.
Monday, November 8, 2010
AUSMIN Announces Space Cooperation between the United States and Australia
As discussed in my previous article Space Surveillance Site to be Built in Western Australia, as part of the 25th Australia-United States Ministerial Conultations on the 8th of November 2010, Minister for Australian Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd, Australian Minister for Defence Stephen Smith, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, have discussed the possibility of cooperation in Space Surveillance and Security.
In a sign of the increasing importance of Space in Australia - the "Joint Statement on Space Security" indicates "Australia and the United States both recognise that space systems have become critical national infrastructure."
"Australia intends to work with the United States to progress efforts to prevent long-lived debris-creating behaviour, and develop and implement transparency and confidence-building measures for enhanced stability and safety in space activities."
During the AUSMIN, Australian Defence Minister Smith and Defence Secretary Gates signed a "Space Situational Awareness Partnership Statement of Principles". This is also seen as a strengthening of Australia's already close relationship with U.S. Defence on issues of Space.
In practice, the US and Australia are considering a joint Space Surveillance facility which is likely to be built at the Harold E. Holt communications base at Exmouth in Western Australia. At the moment, it is likely that the facility would use Radar technologies, but may also include a component of Optical tracking. Australia is actually very well positioned, as there are likely some technology parallels with the Jindallee Over the Horizon Radar Network (JORN), and even more importantly, the technology that EOS has been working on would be an obvious candidate for development and inclusion.
What this will mean is the US will get much better tracking of Space objects in the Southern Hemisphere - currently underserved within the Space Surveillance field. Secondly, better tracking will in theory lead to fewer collisions in space, as well as better transparency of space objects internationally. Thirdly, it will give Australia a major boost in Space Survellance knowledge, as well as major developments in both technology and personnely related to Space. If such a facility is built, Australian defence will be significantly boosting their space capabilities, a good sign for the future.
In an interesting footnote, the joint statement includes " Complementing this work, Australia and the United States also noted the ongoing discussions on developing an Australia-United States Civil Space Cooperation Framework Agreement to take the long-standing civil space cooperation between the two countries to a higher level, strengthen collaboration and provide opportunities for early discussions on new developments. Australia and the United States reaffirmed their commitment to intensify space cooperation across a range of common interests and decided to review progress in this field at AUSMIN 2011."
Perhaps this is tied together with the current Australian Space Policy that is under development, or a broader cooperation framework with the US on Space. I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one.
More information about AUSMIN and the recent announcements can be found here.
In a sign of the increasing importance of Space in Australia - the "Joint Statement on Space Security" indicates "Australia and the United States both recognise that space systems have become critical national infrastructure."
"Australia intends to work with the United States to progress efforts to prevent long-lived debris-creating behaviour, and develop and implement transparency and confidence-building measures for enhanced stability and safety in space activities."
During the AUSMIN, Australian Defence Minister Smith and Defence Secretary Gates signed a "Space Situational Awareness Partnership Statement of Principles". This is also seen as a strengthening of Australia's already close relationship with U.S. Defence on issues of Space.
In practice, the US and Australia are considering a joint Space Surveillance facility which is likely to be built at the Harold E. Holt communications base at Exmouth in Western Australia. At the moment, it is likely that the facility would use Radar technologies, but may also include a component of Optical tracking. Australia is actually very well positioned, as there are likely some technology parallels with the Jindallee Over the Horizon Radar Network (JORN), and even more importantly, the technology that EOS has been working on would be an obvious candidate for development and inclusion.
What this will mean is the US will get much better tracking of Space objects in the Southern Hemisphere - currently underserved within the Space Surveillance field. Secondly, better tracking will in theory lead to fewer collisions in space, as well as better transparency of space objects internationally. Thirdly, it will give Australia a major boost in Space Survellance knowledge, as well as major developments in both technology and personnely related to Space. If such a facility is built, Australian defence will be significantly boosting their space capabilities, a good sign for the future.
In an interesting footnote, the joint statement includes " Complementing this work, Australia and the United States also noted the ongoing discussions on developing an Australia-United States Civil Space Cooperation Framework Agreement to take the long-standing civil space cooperation between the two countries to a higher level, strengthen collaboration and provide opportunities for early discussions on new developments. Australia and the United States reaffirmed their commitment to intensify space cooperation across a range of common interests and decided to review progress in this field at AUSMIN 2011."
Perhaps this is tied together with the current Australian Space Policy that is under development, or a broader cooperation framework with the US on Space. I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one.
More information about AUSMIN and the recent announcements can be found here.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Optus looking for a Spacecraft Systems Engineer and Spacecraft Payload Engineer
Optus, Australia's leading satellite communications company is currently advertising for both a Spacecraft Systems Engineer and a Spacecraft Payload Engineer.
Both positions are full time, based out of Optus' Macquarie Park campus in Sydney, and appear to be aimed at a graduate or early career candidate.
For those interested, head over to the Optus Website or my links above.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Hughes Network Systems Demonstrates Rural Satellite Broadband Capabilities
According to iTWire, Hughes Network Systems claims to have demonstrated a 16 Mbps link to a HN9400 Ka-/Ku-band broadband satellite terminal using satellite in Australia. In doing so, they have demonstrated that their satellite terminal is capable of supporting web browsing, streaming video, voice and videoconferencing applications simultaneously.
According to Hughes "The live demonstrations featured aggregate satellite Internet usage of 16Mbps and in addition, included simultaneous downloading from the Web of video clips, photos, software updates, and music; downloading streaming movies; VoIP; and point-to-point video conferencing - all delivered over the HN9400, a high-capacity, dual Ka-/Ku-band satellite platform."
Hughes is believed to be one of the companies that are competing to with the NBNCo contract to build and launch two Ka band geostationary satellites to provide broadband to the bush, and earlier this year opened an Australian Subsidiary.
It is believed that more will be known about the Satellite tender within the next few weeks.
According to Hughes "The live demonstrations featured aggregate satellite Internet usage of 16Mbps and in addition, included simultaneous downloading from the Web of video clips, photos, software updates, and music; downloading streaming movies; VoIP; and point-to-point video conferencing - all delivered over the HN9400, a high-capacity, dual Ka-/Ku-band satellite platform."
Hughes is believed to be one of the companies that are competing to with the NBNCo contract to build and launch two Ka band geostationary satellites to provide broadband to the bush, and earlier this year opened an Australian Subsidiary.
It is believed that more will be known about the Satellite tender within the next few weeks.
Space Surveillance Site to be Built in Western Australia
During the upcoming visit of both US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates scheduled for next week, a brand new multi-million dollar Space Surveillance facility will be built in Western Australia by the US according to the Fairfax newspapers.
The project, which was planned to be announced during US President Barack Obama's cancelled trip to Australia in June, will likely be built at the Harold E Holt Naval communications station in Exmouth, Western Australia.
As highlighted in the most recent Defence White Paper, Australian military operations are now heavily reliant on space capabilities, and Space Situational Awareness and Mission Assurance was listed as one of the emerging capability priorities.
The facility is a natural extension of the US Space Surveillance capabilities, but will likely provide Australia with key information on the protection of our vital space infrastructure, the space capabilities of other nations, as well as the ever increasing space debris problem.
This continues the rise of importance in Australia of the Space industry, and it is likely that Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith will be on hand for the announcement.
The project, which was planned to be announced during US President Barack Obama's cancelled trip to Australia in June, will likely be built at the Harold E Holt Naval communications station in Exmouth, Western Australia.
As highlighted in the most recent Defence White Paper, Australian military operations are now heavily reliant on space capabilities, and Space Situational Awareness and Mission Assurance was listed as one of the emerging capability priorities.
The facility is a natural extension of the US Space Surveillance capabilities, but will likely provide Australia with key information on the protection of our vital space infrastructure, the space capabilities of other nations, as well as the ever increasing space debris problem.
This continues the rise of importance in Australia of the Space industry, and it is likely that Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith will be on hand for the announcement.
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