Page 48 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2020
P. 48

     48 SPACE GOVERNMENT
APRIL 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
 Canberra is also home to Geoscience Australia’s SBAS, National Positioning Infrastructure Capability (NPIC) and Digital Earth. The SBAS and NPIC are complementary projects under the Positioning Australia program that are seeking to provide accurate positioning services to a range of industries. Current systems can position with five to ten metres of accuracy; these projects are aiming to get that down to three centimetres in areas with phone reception.
The ACT government adds to this space weight with its Space Environment Research Centre (SERC), run at Mt Stromlo in partnership with EOS Space Systems, Lockheed Martin, Optus, several universities and Japan’s National In- stitute of Information and Communications Technology.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Other territory and state governments are also catching the space bug. SA is one of the most notable given it was chosen to host the ASA at Lot Fourteen.
“THE ASA ITSELF HAS GENERATED PLENTY OF HEADLINES WITH A RANGE OF COMMERCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS IN THE LAST YEAR.”
RAAF’s Plan Jericho, which is exploring rapid and afford- able launch options for Defence.
The test will take place at Southern Launch’s new Koonib- ba Test Range, which extends 145 kilometres from the In- digenous community of Koonibba, just east of the Nullarbor. The SA state government was heavily involved in the devel- opment of the range and its procedures for use. It will be the largest privately operated rocket test range on the planet.
“The launch of the DEWC Systems payload at the Koonib- ba Test Range, supported by the First Nations people at Koonibba, marks the start of Australia entering the NewS- pace race and a future where all Australians can truly reach for the stars,” Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp said.
QUEENSLAND
Queensland is also looking to support space launches. It is home to Gilmour Space, run by founder and former banker Adam Gilmour from the Gold Coast. The compa- ny has chosen Queensland based on favourable trajectory analyses and the state’s ability to tap into both equatorial and polar launch markets. It has already begun launch test- ing of prototypes in central Queensland.
A local competitor is BlackSky Aerospace, which in 2018 became the first company to launch a commercial payload from Australia using a site in the Queensland outback. The launch button was pressed by Queensland Manufacturing Minister Cameron Dick.
In February, Minister Dick released Queensland’s Space Industry Strategy 2020-2025. The strategy outlines Queensland’s vision to be seen as an Australasian hub for launch activities, Earth observation, robotics and more.
“The opportunity for Queensland is significant,” Minister Dick said. “The state has the capability and location to devel- op a space industry with the potential to contribute between $3.5 billion to $6 billion to Queensland’s economy by 2036.”
The strategy notes that Queensland enjoys several ad- vantages over southern competitors. It is ideally positioned close to the equator with large stretches of open ocean to the east, ideal for jettisoning early rocket stages. Launching eastward takes advantage of the Earth’s direction of rota- tion, and proximity to the equator can add 460 metres per second to rocket velocities.
Queensland also has large expanses with high speed in- ternet connections and little radio traffic, and ground sta- tion locations in the state’s west have the capacity to scan both hemispheres. The local space industry currently em- ploys over 2,000 people and generates $760 million per year.
NORTHERN TERRITORY
The NT enjoys many of the same geographic advantages as Queensland; it is proximate to the equator, has a low population density and open expanses, and enjoys high tectonic stability.
The Territory could become the first Australian jurisdic- tion to have an operational commercial spaceport used by NASA. Under plans confirmed in June 2019, Equatorial
ABOVE LEFT: Australian companies are looking at launch facilities for satellites and other payloads.
     Two commercial players emerging in SA are DEWC Systems and Southern Launch. The former is a company building electronic warfare satellites for the ADF, the latter a launch outfit setting up a spaceport.
DEWC Systems’ Miniaturised Orbital Electronic War- fare Sensor System (MOESS) project will use Southern Launch’s Orbital Launch Complex at Whaler’s Way on the Eyre Peninsula, expected to be operational at the end of 2020. The SA government granted the Orbital Launch Complex major project status in October last year.
Most recently, DEWC confirmed its position at the front of Southern Launch’s queue. The company will soon send a DEWC payload carrying miniaturised sensors, antennas and communications equipment up to 100 km on a T-Minus Engineering Dart rocket. The launch is a test that aims to demonstrate DEWC Systems’ ability to detect, identify and locate radar emissions through various altitudes and envi- ronments. Funding for the program comes partly through
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