Sunday, July 29, 2012

Space Code of Conduct: An Australian Perspective - Analysis

Brett Biddington has written an interesting article about Australia's interested in a Space Code of Conduct - head over here for a good read.

Dr James Moody Article

The Australian has a great article on Dr James Moody and his career background - I can highly recommend it for all of you budding Space experts in Australia - head here.

2012 Australian Defence Capability Plan Space Projects

The Australian Defence Capability Plan has recently been updated (the 2012 DCP can be downloaded here) to include several space projects, including a new Space Surveillance project. Australia is growing both its defence uses of space and its capabilities in space technologies - a clear result of its recent investments in skills and training within the defence force in space related topics.

The 2012 DCP has a few interesting space related projects that are worth spending a bit of time on.

JP2008 Phase 5B.2 -Military Satellite Capability - Satellite Ground Station East and Network Management System. Following the Australian involvement in the US Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) project, JP2008 Phase 5B.2 will estabilsh new satellite ground stations in eastern and western Australia. These ground stations will deepen Australia's involvement in the WGS project, following Australia purchasing a 6th Satellite in exchange for access to the entire WGS constellation.

JP2044  Defence Geospatial Intelligence Capability  - JP2044 will upgrade Australia's ability to exploit geospatial data (such as satellite imagery) for Australian Defence needs. Whilst this does not include a space-based capability, JP2044 will ensure that the Australian defence forces will become an even more sophisticated user of Geospatial Intelligence.

JP2025 Phase 6  Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) will upgrade the JORN network to ensure that it's capability remains cutting edge. The JORN provides over the horizon radar surveillance through bouncing radar off the ionosphere.  This project will include emerging technologies into the JORN capability, where Australia remains a global leader - particularly through DSTO. Interestingly, some of the technology and skills required for JP 3029 Phase 1 will leverage Australia's experience with JORN.

JP 2078 Phase 2 - Hyper-Spectral Imaging is an early phase project examining the ability to detect targets through Hyper-Spectral Imaging (HSI) - particularly targets associated with improvised explosive devices, weapons of mass destruction and deep hide military equipment. Whilst a final decision has yet to be made on the platform that will be used, a satellite capability is under serious consideration. The project will continue some early work done by DSTO and RPDE on this topic.

JP 3029 Phase 1 Space Surveillance is a new project related Space Situational Awareness. Currently Australia has very limited Space Situational awareness relying heavily on the US Space Surveillance Network for its knowledge. This project intends to relocate a C-Band radar from the US to Australia to support an initial Australian capability. In 2010 Australia and the US signed a partnership to cooperate with the US on Space Situational Awareness. In Parallel, the US will likely locate a new Space Fence facility in Western Australia to improve the accuracy of their in the Southern Hemisphere.

Overall, there is an increasing understanding with Defence of the importance of space information, space technologies and space capabilities. The 2012 DCP further demonstrates the increasing priority that Defence is placing on Space. No doubt we will see this  priority increase even further over the next decade.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Australia signs on to be Landsat 8 Partner

Australia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Geological Survey to become an international collaborator on the Landsat 8 program.

The Landsat series of satellites have been the longest running satellite series for imaging Earth from space. Since 1972, seven Landsat satellites have been launched, with Landsat 8 or the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) being launched on the 24th of January 2013.

The Landsat series of satellites have been vital to many Australian government programs as one of the primary sources of Earth Observation data since 1979. Most importantly, by signing up to the Landsat 8 program, the Australian government will achieve data continuity which is vital to examine data trends over years or decades.

The media release related to the MoU signature is available here, and some further interesting information about the Landsat series can be found over on Geoscience Australia's website here.

Friday, July 13, 2012

ViaSat awarded a $280M NBNCo Contract

NBNCo has awarded a $280M contract to California-based ViaSat for the supply of the ground segment of the satellite component of the NBNCo Satellite system. The contract includes provision of the 13.5m dishes accross the 10 NBN gateways accross Australia, as well as the 200,000 satellite dishes and satellite modems for households.

It is believed that ViaSat will provide a similar solution to the NBN to what it is providing for its Exede service in the US.

The contract is anticipated to generate around 300 jobs in Australia according to the NBN press release, with the long term satellite system being up and running in 2015.
The contract award completes a two year procurement process which follows the NBNCo decision in February to select Space Systems Loral for the Space-based component of the Satellite system.


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Why Australia should ride JUICE to Jupiter

The European Space Agency announced in May that they had selected the Jupiter Icy moons Explorer, or JUICE mission for their next large class science mission under the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program.

The JUICE mission will see a spacecraft launched in 2022, and arriving at Jupiter around 2030, spending around 3 years in the Jovian system making detailed observations. The mission will analyse Jupiter's atmosphere and magnetosphere, and examine Europa, Ganymede and Callisto - particularly examining the moons internal structures and oceans. After initial flybys of Europa, the mission will enter orbit around Ganymede, and focus on observing the magnetic field and internal ocean structure.

So, what has this got to do with Australian Space?

Well, the JUICE mission has recently released its call for scientific payloads  which allows proposals to be made for scientific payloads from European countries, the USA, Russia or Japan - or in otherwords, contributing partners.

Within the 2010-2019 Decadal Plan for Australian Space Science, an International Collaborations and Future Opportunities program was called for. Essentially, the program was to be established to allow Australian Scientists to participate in major international space science missions, that Australia could not afford by itself.

The JUICE mission couldn't fit the bill better, as a wonderful opportunity for Australia to contribute a small amount of funding, and build an Australian payload to go and explore the Jovian system.

Participating in such an incredible scientific opportunity  would not just be a major boost to Australian space science, but would serve to strengthen our cooperation with the the world's leading space agencies. Given the current budgetary difficulties within Europe and the US, additional funding would also no doubt be welcomed.

As Australia is about to release its first national space policy later this year, it is opportunities in Space Science such as the JUICE mission that we must seriously consider. With the timeframe of 20 years before the spacecraft will go into orbit around Ganymede, Australia must not pass up such an incredible space science opportunity.

It would be great to see an Australian response to the JUICE call for paylods, with the support of the Australian government to fund the payload as a modest contribution relative to the total mission size. We could then become a mission partner along with Europe, America, Russia and Japan, and we could ride JUICE to Jupiter.