Australian Space Needs: Telecommunications

Australia is one of the most suited countries in the world for Satellite based telecommunications due to our large size, and geographically spread population. It is also no surprise that Telecommunications has been one of Australia’s most successful segments of the space industry for many years. Globally speaking it is also one of the most successful commercial industries within space with an estimate $80 Billion revenue size.


Telecommunications encompasses a wide range of different applications that Australians use every day, without paying much attention to it. Space based telecommunications used in Australia include:

• Television broadcasting
• Consumer Broadband Internet Services
• Satellite Telephone Services
• Telecommunications backhaul services
• Remote Site Communications such as mining sites or defence requirements

The Australian Space Government website identifies that there are at least 14 satellite operators that provide satellite communications to, from and within Australia, and the ACMA highlights that growth in the global industry was 38% from 2000 to 2005, with this level of growth expected to continue. So far this year, many telecommunications companies have released close to double-digit business growth including Optus who recently reported a 9% jump in Satellite revenue.

A little bit of history.... 

Back in the early 80’s, a government telecommunications provider called Aussat was created, and on the 27th of August 1985 launched its first satellite – Aussat A1 via the Space Shuttle Discovey. Aussat A1 provided communications services for both civilian and military needs, as well as television broadcast to remote regions in Australia. It was located at 160° east in Geostationary orbit, and remained operational until 1993.

Aussat A1 being launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery (Photo: Spaceinfo.com.au)

Not long after, Aussat A2 and A3 were launched in November 1985 and September 1987 respectively, providing Aussat with a fleet of operational telecommunications satellites in orbit, and a unique capability to Australia. The A-series satellites were Ku Band satellites, and were built by Hughes (now Boeing).

In 1992, Optus purchased Aussat including the A-series of satellites, and moved ahead in acquiring the B-series of satellites to meet growing demand. On the 13^th of August 1992, the Optus B-1 satellite was launched, with the launch failure of the Optus B-2 satellite occurring the 21^st of December 1992. Optus B-3 was then developed and launched on the 27^th of August 1994 to replaced the failed B-2 satellite.

The Optus B3 Satellite (Photo Credit: Optus)

For the next generation of satellites, Optus teamed up with the Australia department of Defence, with Optus C-1 using the Ku band for civilian telecommunications, and UHF, X and Ka bands for defence purposes. Optus C-1 carries significant television broadcasts, including Foxtel, ABC Australia, Aurora (remote free to air television), and other channel’s (7,9,10) digital broadcasts. 
The D-series of satellites include D-1 (launch: 13^th Oct 2006), D-2 (launch: 5^th Oct 2007), and D-3 (launch: 21^st August 2009). These satellites replaced the B-1 and B-3 Satellites at end of life, and expanded capacity of the C-1 satellite through co-location. The D-series of satellites provides television broadcast services, two way voice and data services to Australia and New Zealand, as well as services to Australian and NZ government departments.

The Optus D1 Satellite (Photo Credit: Optus)

In total, Aussat / Optus has had a fleet of 9 working satellites – certainly the biggest of any Australian organisation.  

What’s next for Satellites?

Looking to the future, there are several major developments underway that will underpin the future of space based telecommunications in Australia for the years to come.

Firstly, Optus has recently announced that it has just ordered a next generation Ku satellite (currently named Optus 10), and is planned for launch in 2013. This will ensure that their capabilities will last long into the 2020’s.  

NBNCo is right in the middle of making a decision about ordering two Ka band satellites to cover the complete Australian continent, allowing high speed broadband and telecommunications to all those Australians not covered by fibre optic or wireless technologies. 

Thirdly, a company called NewSat  is planning on launching its own fleet of telecommunications satellites called “Jabiru” over the coming years, and are in the advanced planning stages of the satellite procurement.

In this respect, the space based telecommunications future in Australia looks very bright!

Ground Segments

On the ground segment side of things, Space based telecommunications has had a long and successful history in Australia. Just before Aussat A1 was launched, Aussat (now Optus) also opened its Sydney Earth Station at Belrose, which still remains one of the most important space facilities in Australia. I’d also highly recommend the recent ARN article here about the Belrose earth station – it’s a great read.

The Optus Belrose facility (Photo credit: ITnews) 

In addition to the Optus facility at Belrose, Australia also plays host to a number of major ground segments for international space agencies including NASA, ESA, JAXA. Major ground stations around Australia include the NASA Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla, the Perth International Telecommunications Centre, ESA’s facility at New Norcia and the NewSat centres at Bayswater and Mawson Lakes.

Main defence ground segments include the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station (ADSCS) at Geraldton, the Shoal Bay receiving station, and the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap. 


For those of you who are interested in the ground segment side of things, the ACMA currently has a discussion paper out about Earth Station siting – particularly in relation to spectrum issues. You can read more about this or make a submission here with the pdf of the paper here 

The Space Telecommunications industry in Australia has had a long and successful history in Australia and and has a very bright future, both in Space and On-ground. With Optus, NBNCo and NewSat all looking to build new satellites over the coming few years - expect big things to come.  

Space Industry Forum in Adelaide

The Space Industry Association of Australia will be holding a Space Industry forum in Adelaide on Tuesday 16 August 2011 from 5.30-7.00pm.

Space Research in Australia - the Successes and the Challenges

The Forum will be chaired by Brett Biddington, Chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia

The Panelists will include:
Bob Buxton (Flinders University) - Place and Space: Perspective in Earth Observations
Andrew Clark (Vipac) - Greenhouse Gas Monitor Project
Michael Davis (Adelta Legal) - Southern Hemisphere Summer Space Program
Jeff Kasparian (ITR, UniSA) - Space-based National Wireless Sensor Network

It will provide a good understanding of several Australian Space Research Program projects, as well the opportunity ask questions about the future direction of Space Research in Australia to a series of industry experts.

I am told that places are running out very quick, so rush over to http://www.spaceindustry.com.au/register.htm before 12 August 2011, or email the SIAA on forums@spaceindustry.com.au 

Australia's Space Needs: Bushfire Detection and Mapping

Continuing on the Australian Space Needs series of Blogs, I’ve decided to devote this blog post to fire detection and mapping from Space.

Photo: Reuters via the Sydney Morning Herald

Australia, through its hot, dry landscape is significantly pre-disposed to bushfires. In fact, South Eastern Australia is said to have some of the most bushfire prone areas in the world. Fire has been used for many thousands of years by indigenous Australians for a variety of purposes, and several of Australia’s native flora have specifically adapted to use the natural cycle of bushfires to reproduce.

During summer, it is quite normal in Australia to have multiple bushfires at any given moment across the country. However, when these bushfires threaten property and life, it becomes very important that we can detect them as quickly as possible, and have the best possible knowledge about their direction and location.

In recent years, despite improving methods of fire detection, fire mapping and fire fighting, several major Australian bushfires have killed many people and caused enormous economic damage. The black Saturday bushfires in 2009 in Victoria killed 173 people, and destroyed over 2000 houses. In 2005, 9 people were killed in a bushfire on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, and in 2003, major bushfires encroached on Australia’s capital Canberra killing 4 people and destroying around 500 homes. Going right back to 1983, many Australian’s would remember the Ash Wednesday fires that killed 75 people across South Australia and Victoria.

Bushfires are a significant Australian issue and one that benefits from the application of Space Technologies.

Prior to 2003, fire services from Around Australia relied on “eye-witness” reports from people in vehicles, fire towers, spotter planes and helicopters to provide fire detection and mapping. With 7.6 Million square kilometres of surface to cover, this system was not perfect to say the least. Particularly when assets such as spotter planes and helicopters are often grounded in heavy smoke or high winds, exactly when the fire detection and mapping need is at its highest.

Back in 2001-02 following bushfires in NSW and ACT, the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) together with CSIRO and Geoscience Australia got together to develop and implement a system to detect and monitor bushfires using satellite data. The new system was called Sentinel Hotspots.

The Sentinel Hotspots system uses data from the NASA Earth Observation Satellites Terra and Aqua with their Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument to extract the current thermal imagery across Australia allowing detection and mapping of Bushfires. It then overlays this bushfire location data on a detailed map of Australia, and provides all of this information over an easy to use internet interface.

A Screenshot from the Sentinel fire mapping website 

The MODIS instrument on the Terra and Aqua satellites have a swath width of 2330km, and pass over Australia at least once per day, reporting fires within one hour of detection. The system has an accuracy of around 1.5km, and can update up to four times per day, depending on satellite passes.

The data from these satellites is downlinked to Geoscience Australia at Alice Springs, and special algorithms are used to produce the thermal images. Areas with high temperature are then identified, and fed into a spatial database which can be accessed via an internet interface, highlighting the location of each fire and other information about the fires progress.

The Sentinel Hotspots system was launched in January 15 2003, juts three days before major bushfires hit Canberra. Whilst the Sentinel Hotspots system was only intended to be a ‘pilot’ website, firefighters, media and the general public all swamped the website to check the latest information about the fires.

On the 19th of January 2003, just 4 days after the website launched, it recorded over 1.6 million hits – with CSIRO working 24 hours a day to make sure the system kept running in an operational mode. In total, the Sentinel website received 14.1 million hits in January 2003 and 3.4 million in February 2003, with a surprising 35% of traffic on the peak day coming from overseas.

The ‘pilot’ system was made into a permanent operational system in 2005, and is now hosted by Geoscience Australia here. It is also one of many different global fire detection and mapping systems such as the NASA MODIS global firemap series.

A Week of Fire locations around the World from the MODIS firemap website

The Sentinel Hotspots systems is a wonderful example of using satellite data to save people's lives, save people’s houses, and improve our ability to control major bushfires, avoiding major economic damage. Providing accurate detection and mapping of fires in near-real time, provides fire authorities with a strong management tool allowing them to best deploy resources and manage disaster response more efficiently and effectively.

On the space side, Australia is still currently reliant on NASA’s satellites to provide us with this critical information. As far as I am aware, Australia has not contributed to the design, development, launch or operation of these satellites – with the exception of providing a data download facility which allows us to also use the data free of charge.

In future, fire detection and mapping from space will become more effective in supporting operational fire management and fire fighting in real time, with increased resolution as well as a reduced re-visit time – allowing a reduction in the time between when a fire starts, and when it is reported to fire authorities. This very early reporting can allow fire-fighters to get a fire under control, before turning into a major threat to communities.

It is also an application where it would make sense for Australia to take on a leading role in the international community – whilst delivering real and immediate benefits to Australians at home. Perhaps fire detection and mapping something the upcoming Australian Space Policy will consider.

Climate R3 about to kick-off in Sydney

 

Image Credit: Australian Space Policy Unit

From July 18-20 at the Menzies hotel in Sydney, Australia will host the Climate Regional Readiness Review or “Climate R³” as it is known. The Climate R³ initiative was born out of an Australian proposal at the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) -17 that was held in Melbourne in November 2010 that was aimed at undertaking a Regional Readiness Review for Key Climate Missions.

Overall, the aim of the review is to determine the ability of APRSAF countries and their relevant institutions to benefit from space derived data and information that will be derived from climate related earth observation satellites that will be launched in the next few years.

The first topics chosen for this review include:

• Precipitation Information
• Soil Moisture
• Land Use / Mapping

All three of these are definitely high priority areas for Australia in light of the recent droughts and floods, and have been determined to be high priority areas to the APRSAF governments. Future Climate R³ may broaden their focus to other APRSAF priority areas.

The review plans to look at the end-to-end system of data and information flow, from space-based acquisition, right through to the dissemination and exploitation of this data to support each nations needs. It will include a review of the satellite coverage against each area; local reception facilities; data storage and processing together with in-country know how; product development needs and dissemination capabilities.

Climate R³ will also undertake a review of the institutional arrangements in APRSAF countries, including identification of end-user groups.

I was also lucky enough to speak with Mr Stephen Ward and Mr George Dyke, who are two of the key figures driving the success of the Climate R³. I posed them the following questions:

SpaceBoomerang: What benefits of Climate R³ do you see for Australia?

Australia wishes to see well-informed climate policy in the Asia-Pacific region for our mutual benefit, and securing access to key space data streams and ensuring capacity for their exploitation is an important part of supporting that policy. By playing a coordinating role in brokering the international partnerships and data flows at the heart of Climate R³, Australia will be building on its existing international space linkages, creating new linkages, and ultimately helping to ensure future access to data. We have already seen those linkages in action, with support to the development of the workshop being provided by key partners like JAXA (Japan), USGS and NASA (USA), and ESA (Europe).


SpaceBoomerang: How do you think initiatives like Climate R³ support developing nations in the region?


The Asia-Pacific, unlike USA and Europe, has no comprehensive region-wide process for the systematic assessment of our climate information requirements, in particular for the planning and implementation of the supporting satellite observation systems to satisfy these requirements. Being home to 60% of the world’s population, the region deserves, and has a pressing need for such a capacity and process especially as it is particularly vulnerable to many of the expected impacts of climate change processes. Initiatives like Climate R³ create a forum where countries in the Asia-Pacific with expertise and space capabilities can share expertise, information and support capacity building in nations who do not. While still a pilot initiative, participants in the Climate R³ workshop will cover a wide range of Asia-Pacific countries including Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, USA, and Australia, as well as Europe.

SpaceBoomerang: This is one of the first international Australian driven space initiatives in many years. Do you think this is the start of a broader plan for Australia to become actively involved in international space activities again?

The pilot Climate R³ workshop is being coordinated by the Space Policy Unit (SPU) within the Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR). The SPU has been given a mandate to bring forward a National space policy for consideration by Government. Part of this mandate is to consider how Australia uses space to tackle climate change, weather forecasting, natural resource management, forestry and agriculture, disaster management, and national security. The focus of the Climate R³  workshop is on ensuring access to key climate-related data streams, and so it fits well within this mandate.


Broader Australian engagement in international space activities would also take place within this mandate, and therefore would in all likelihood be linked to the areas of national interest identified. Climate R³  is focused on Earth observation, but other areas of interest in the future may include other space services like position, navigation and timing, and satellite communications and broadband; support to space science and research and applications development; development of Australia’s domestic space industries; and, safeguarding Australia’s national security.

SpaceBoomerang: Climate R³ is one of a growing number of initiatives coming from the APRSAF. Where do you see the future of the APRSAF cooperation, and what role do you see Australia playing in its future?

APRSAF includes broad membership from across Asia, and past activities have been built substantively on Japan’s long heritage in space. As a number of Asian countries increase the sophistication of their space activities, developing both space-based hardware and applications for the benefit of their societies, more opportunities to share those benefits will naturally emerge through forums like APRSAF. The diversity of Asian space programs means that those opportunities will likely emerge across the full range of space activities, with nations engaging in cooperation when those opportunities align with their national interests.


Australia has been engaged in APRSAF for some time now, having hosted the 11th (2004) and 17th (2010) APRSAF meetings. As Australia continues to develop its Space Policy, identifying areas of national interest, you would expect to see further opportunities for collaboration with APRSAF countries emerge. Australia’s good relations with traditional space powers like Japan, the USA, and Europe also position it well to play a coordination role within the Asia-Pacific.

Climate R³  is being led by Australia through the Space Policy Unit, who is collaborating with Geoscience Australia, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and other Australian Government departments.

ESA, NASA, USGS and JAXA are also providing support for the initiative, with speakers currently planned from Australia, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Europe and the United States of America.

For more information, head to the information page on space.gov.au over here.

Australian Childrens Space Book Released

Australian Children's author Tristan Bancks has released his latest latest book titled "Galactic Adventures: First Kids in Space".

 (Image Credit: Tristan Bancks)

The book is about Australian boy Dash Campbell whose only dream is to go to space. He is lucky enough to get that opportunity when the billionaire owner of a civilian space travel company puts out a call to find the first five kids in space.

Whilst only being released this week, the book is getting great reviews so far. Well done Tristan for inspiring the next generation of Australian's who will take us to the stars!

For more information on the book, head here.

Minister Carr Meets NASA Administrator Bolden

In an event that has received surprisingly little coverage in the main stream press, Australian Space Minister Senator Carr met with NASA Administrator Bolden on the 28th June 2011.

In the media release which you can take a look at here, it highlights that they discussed:

"Australia's national space policy development, the Australian Space Research Program and NASA's involvement, future NASA missions and potential future Australian-United States collaboration."

  It goes on to say:

"The Australian Government is keen to encourage further opportunities for international collaboration with NASA and the United States regarding civil space science activities. Australia has significant niche capabilities to contribute in the international arena," Senator Carr said. 

Administrator Bolden and Senator Carr also discussed NASA's interest in future space science collaborations, including in the area of Earth observation."

This leaves me with a lot more questions than answers. What sort of collaborations are they discussing? Will this be part of the upcoming National Space Policy? If there wasn't some sort of opportunity on the horizon, what else would they be discussing?

I'm truly reading between the lines here, but would it be possible that they were discussing a potential Australian involvement on a NASA Earth Observation program?

Let me know if anyone has any ideas on this one. I am guessing we'll be hearing more on this front.

Australian Space Research Program Analysis

With Round 4 of the Australian Space Research Program announced, I thought I would take a look at the global picture of what the four rounds and $40 Million of Government funding looks like.

For a start, in total, there were 14 ASRP grants awarded across the four selection rounds. Of these, there were 4 grants awarded under Stream A (Education) and 10 awarded under Stream B (Space Science and Innovation).

Looking at the funding total, excluding GST, I add up a total of $40,322,000 funding awarded (very slightly above the $40 Million allocated). Of that total, $3,071,158 went to the 4 Stream A Grants, and $37,250,842 went to the 10 Stream B Grants as below.

That also means that the average award for Stream A grants was $767,790, whereas the average award for Stream B grants was a much higher $3,725,084.

Taking a look at which states did well out of the ASRP, ACT and SA did the best with 4 grants allocated, with NSW on 3, Victoria on 2, and Queensland on 1 (taking into account only the lead recipient) as below.

 

There were a total of 61 different organisations who are part of ASRP Grant Consortiums, with the most involved organisations being the Australian National University who is involved in 6 different ASRP grants, followed by the University of NSW with 5. DSTO and EOS Space Systems are involved in 3 each, and Curtin University of Technology, the Bureau of Meteorology, University of South Australia, CSIRO and Vipac Engineers and Scientists involved in 2 grants each.

19 International organisations are involved in the ASRP grants, demonstrating that the ASRP is highly successful in developing international cooperation and links. The USA led the way with involvement in 4 programs, with France coming in second with involvement in 3 programs. 

So what can we learn from all of this? Well, firstly, the ASRP grant money was clearly spread across a large range of organisations in Australia, and has enabled strong international links with many of the worlds leading Space nations.

In looking at the states and international involvement, we may also start to see some interesting things for the future of Space in Australia. Clearly, the Space Industry is focussed primarily around 4 states - ACT, SA, NSW and Victoria. This would not come as a surprise to many. We can also see that internationally, Australia is forming links primarily with the USA and Europe. These are also the most likely international partners for future space cooperation.

In my view, the ASRP has already been a great success, and forms an interesting model for continued space activities in Australia. Whilst a fully sector proposed model is unlikely to form the basis for an Australian national Space Policy, propositions from Industry and Academia should continue to be part of that future. I'm sure the lessons from the success of the ASRP are being fully taken into account by the Space Policy Unit, and I look forward to the national Space Policy release shortly.