The Australian Space Industry Innovation Council has released its strategic road map on the 4th of April 2011. It is buried a little on the space.gov.au website - but if you're interested in reading it, head here.
I must say, my first thought when opening it was - one powerpoint slide? I've seen a few strategic roadmaps before, but rarely can they be summed up on one power point slide. I guess they have managed to squeeze a lot of detail onto that slide.
So on with my comments. Firstly, I'm very encouraged to see 10 years worth of planning. What the space sector in Australia has been lacking over the last decade or more, has been some sort of longer term vision about how to bring everything together and sustain it.
2010 Milestones: There are two important ones here for me: A National Space Strategic Plan has been developed - it would be great to see it published for all to see, and the identification of key vulnerabilities in the space sector, along with options to mitigate them. Hopefully both of these serve as inputs to the upcoming Australian National Space Policy.
Pathways: A great set of strong enablers for a vibrant long term Space Industry in Australia. They also strike me as almost a nice set of aims for a future Australian Space Agency. If we could develop a Space Agency in Australia that could achieve all of these, we'd be set.
2020 Targets / Outcomes: "Top 3 market leader in target niches" - I'm very interested in knowing what such niches would be - and how government would help to reach such a target. "Sustained growth rate exceeding national average" - In the UK Space Agency report about the size and health of the UK Space Industry, growth rates were at around 10%. I think this would be a good annual rate of growth target for Australia.
"Australians in international leadership roles, Significant Australian participation in international space programs, SKA in Australia" - SKA is an obvious short to mid term pay off for increased space attention in Australia. This also perhaps suggests that Australia may possibly be interested in joining global space programs, or perhaps some regional programs - perhaps we could start by undertaking a small amount of science on the ISS. "Own and operate our own space capabilities, Supply space data and information to other nations, Contribute to Space Situational Awareness" - Having Australia own and operate our own satellites, is a game changer in my view, and one we need to follow as soon as possible. This is likely to come through the Defence Department's purchase of a Radar Satellite in the coming years, as well as NBNCo's purchase of two Ka Band communications satellites. Space Situational Awareness will also put us centre stage from a global perspective as there are not a great deal of facilities in the Southern Hemisphere who can provide SSA data. It would be great to finally help our allies out with data after they have helped us out for so many years.
Overall I think the strategic road map has incorporated some very interesting points, and is a great step in the right direction. It is also great to see the beginnings of a longer term vision, and I hope this carries through to whatever may replace the Australian Space Research Program. It would be good however to see a little more detail published about just what specific targets could be set, and what the Space Strategic plan has to offer.
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