Three Australians Attending the ISU SSP

This years International Space University's Space Studies program, which has just kicked off, has three Australians in attendance.

One of those attendees, Kim Ellis, is writing a daily blog about her experiences in the program.

It's a good read, so if you can, head over to her blog - http://blog.internationalearthspacetechnology.com/

TWO SPACE RELATED PROJECTS AWARDED FUNDS IN COOPERATION WITH INDIA

Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr today announced that nine projects have been awarded $2.7 million from Round 4 of the Indo-Australian Science and Technology Fund, which is a component of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF).

The two projects include:
"Enabling new science with the Murchison Widefield Array, an international low frequency pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array", which is a cooperation between the Curtin University of Technology and the Raman Research Institute - which was awarded $380,000

"From the magellanic clouds to the Milky Way: A new understanding of galaxy structure and interactions based on kinematics of 5000 stars", which is a cooperation between the University of Tasmania and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics - which was awarded $260,000.

It is interesting to see Australia engaging in some cooperative projects with China and India that are related to the Square Kilometre Array - perhaps enhancing the political support of the ANZ SKA bid.

Another win for the Space and Astronomy community in Australia!

Australian Government Space Website Launched

The Australian Government has launched its Space website – which can be found here.

The new website, besides looking dramatically better that the somewhat bland previous site has also had some new material added on it, such as the Hayabusa landing, as well as some more information about the Space Policy Unit and upcoming National Space Policy.

They’ve released a new flyer for the Space Industry Innovation Council and they have also created dedicated pages for Earth Observation, Satellite Communications, Position, Navigation and Timing, Global Navigation Satellite Systems and the Global Positioning System (GPS).

It seems entirely appropriate with all of these major developments going on in the Australian Space Industry, that the government website was improved. I hope they can now use this new website to post more news and information about the Australian Space Sector as it becomes available – I know I for one will be watching it closely.

Now at least we know who to call and where to go to speak to the Australian Government about Space – bravo Space Policy Unit!

Anglo Australian Observatory becomes fully Australian

On July 1st 2010, the Anglo Australian Observatory will become a fully Australian run facility. In doing so, it is understood to be changing its name to the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

 The Anglo-Australian Observatory (Image: Anglo Australian Observatory)

With a combined British / Australian heritage for over 35 years, it has been one of the most productive telescopes worldwide for its class.

The Australian Government has provided an additional $30 Million over the next 5 years to the telescope facility, with Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry, Richard Marles, overseeing a historic ceremony to mark the change on the 25th of June, 2010.

NASA - VSSEC Talks

Two NASA space scientists (Dr Adrian Brown - an Australian, and Dr Jennifer Heldmann) are visiting Australia shortly and will be giving a series of public talks titled "Mars Science Laboratory Mission: The Search for Methane and Carbonate on Mars", as well as promoting the NASA - VSSEC Space prize. The talks will be given in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne - and they're free! For further information, head here.

Dates and Venues
Brisbane: Wednesday 30th June (Dr. Brown only)
2.20-3.20pm
In association with AeroSpaceFutures www.aerospacefutures.com.au
Rydges South Bank

Sydney: Thursday 1st July (Dr. Brown only)
1:00-2:00pm
Everyone welcome. No booking necessary.
UNSW, Biological Sciences Building, 1st floor, Biomed B Theatre

Canberra: Monday 5th July (Dr. Heldmann only)
4:00-6:00pm
In association with Australian Earth Sciences Careers Night
Everyone welcome. No booking necessary.
Sir Harold Raggatt Theatre, Geoscience Australia, Cnr Jerrabomberra & Hindmarsh Drv.

Adelaide: Monday 5th July (Dr. Brown only)
8:00-9:00pm
Everyone welcome. No booking necessary.
RiAus, Science Exchange, Exchange Place, Adelaide

Melbourne: Friday 9th July (Dr. Brown & Dr. Heldmann)
6:30-7:30pm
In association with Australian Mars Exploration Conference www.marssociety.org.au
Victorian Space Science Education Centre

Everyone welcome email bookings@vssec.vic.edu.au to reserve a seat
*ALL EVENTS ARE FREE* 

Australian Space Development Conference Full Preliminary Program

The National Space Society of Australia has released the full preliminary program which can be found here.

My first thoughts on the preliminary program are – things are really taking off here! Firstly, if they get most of the invited speakers, the conference has really taken a step up in its importance for both the industry in general, and its significance to the Australian government. Secondly, they have been able to create 4 streams for most of the conference, all with interesting and relevant speakers – when compared to the last conference in 2008, this is a big step up.

A few speakers/Sessions that will be interesting...

Senator the Hon Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
We’ll call him the minister for Space for now. Senator Kim Carr has achieved some big strides for the Space Sector so far since being in the portfolio, and we should thank him for that. What will be interesting, will be any comments he can make about the future – in particular, in Space Policy development.

Session 4A - Defence and National Security
The Australian Department of Defence is really recognising how truly important Space is to what they do. I would guess that we’ll see some big changes in the way Space Defence works in Australian in the coming years, regardless of what happens on the civil side. This session could be really interesting to hear what the various defence branches have to say.

Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water
One Government minister would be good, but two would be incredible to attract to the conference. If Senator Penny Wong can speak, it will demonstrate just how important this government takes space and space technology. Fingers crossed that she comes.

Dr Michael Green and Prof Ros Dubs: Capacity Building: The Role of Government
Both Dr Michael Green and Prof Ros Dubs are two of the main players in the Australian Government Space scene now. Everyone in the room should be interested in their talk.

I could go on, but let’s see how the program develops over the next few weeks. I also hope that the Liberal party can also send some representatives – just to get a real understanding of the importance of the Space sector to Australia.

Let me also send out a big congratulations to Kirby Ikin, Anthony Wicht and the entire conference team at NSSA. Every two years they put on an very good conference, and a lot of hard work goes into the organisation that most of us never see.

Hayabusa’s Spectacular Return

Hayabusa lights up the outback sky on return (JAXA)

Right on schedule, at 11:51pm on June 13, the Hayabusa spacecraft put on a spectacular skyshow on its return to the Woomera Prohibited Area in the South Australian outback.

The spacecraft separated from its capsule as planned, and as you can see in the video, the spacecraft broke apart and burnt up on re-entry, leaving the capsule to float gently down on its parachute for a soft landing. Furthermore, the capsule then broadcast its location back to the search team, allowing them to find it by helicopter reasonably quickly in the vast Woomera test range.

 Hayabusa and parachute when first spotted (JAXA)

The capsule has been deemed “intact”, and will now be taken back to Japan to the eager scientists who will now open it to determine if any Asteroid dust or gas was captured.

 Hayabusa up close when being recovered (JAXA)

The original video from the NASA tracking aircraft can be found here.

First thoughts from the Australian Space Innovation Council

The first thoughts from the Australian Space Innovation Council are starting to come through, following meetings in both February and April.

The Council are sticking to the three main themes of Earth Observation, Satellite Communications and Position, Navigation and Timing - no surprise there, and a good idea as all three topics are linked to National issues and should enjoy bi-partisan support within Parliament.

The council also intend to provide strategies to the government, to develop an internationally competitive Space Industry - something we can all look forward to, and hopefully something that gains support within the Government.

The Space Innovation Council has formed work groups to examine:

• how space technologies and services enable the broader delivery of government policy, such as our response to climate change, energy usage monitoring and natural disaster management;
• the importance of position, navigation and timing services (such as GPS) to Australia's society, civic infrastructure and economy;
• strategies and key messages for the sector to communicate the importance of space technologies and services; and 
• Australia's role as the “Big Ear for the Southern Hemisphere" in providing vital satellite ground stations, which listen out on behalf of international partners and ourselves from the large and quiet continental location which is Australia. 

So no major surprises so far, and heading in the right direction. This is the first time I've seen the term "Big Ear for the Southern Hemisphere" - perhaps something we'll see more of in the future. Hopefully they will have something to present at the upcoming Australian Space Development Conference soon.

Australia's SKA bid goes green

The Australian government has announced $47.3 Million in funding to provide clean, renewable energy to two of the precursor facilities currently being built in preparation for Australia and New Zealand to host the full Square Kilometer Array Facility.

The Pawsey High-Performance Computing Centre in Kensington will be powered by a geo-thermal demonstrator facility, with the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory using a new Solar Storage system.


The construction of the new energy projects will commence in November 2010, and be completed by Mid 2013.

The Australian government is once again showing its strong commitment to host the SKA project, with well over $200 Million in funding provided in new facilities so far to strengthen Australia's chances in hosting the full facility.

The countdown to Hayabusa continues

If all goes well, on sunday night at about 11:30pm local time, the Hayabusa spacecraft will be floating gently down to Woomera on its parachute that will deploy at about 10km altitude.

As I've blogged on before, the Hayabusa spacecraft will also hopefully contain some dust samples from the asteroid Itokawa, after overcoming a series of major problems to limp back to Earth, in what could be described as simply amazing engineering on behalf of the JAXA engineers.

Both Japan and NASA will be sending down sensitive tracking equipment to track the spacecraft on reentry, with scientists including Professor Trevor Ireland from the Australian National University eagerly awaiting to see the results.

For those wanting to follow the mission live, the Hayabusa site can be found here.

Uni of Queensland's Scramjet consortium comes together

The University of Queensland has been working hard with law firm McCullough Robertson to bring together the multinational agreement for their recently awarded Australian Space Research Program Grant.

The agreement involves organisations from Australia, the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy, bringing together more than $9 Million of funding from the consortium to match the $5 Million grant already won as part of the Australian Space Research Program.

The consortium will be working hard to develop scramjet technologies - seen by many as one of the most promising technologies for the future of both Space Launch and Air travel.

This project is already starting to place Australia at the front of the pack for scramjet technology, and is a great example of how Space funding in Australia is vital.