Dr David Williams to head CSIRO Information Sciences Group

In a major coup for both CSIRO and the Australian Space Industry, Dr David Williams has been appointed as the head of CSIRO's Information Science Division. The Information Science Division covers astronomical and space sciences, digital productivity and services, information and communication technologies and mathematical and statistical sciences and has around 1200 staff.

Dr David Williams (Photo Credit: CSIRO)

Dr Williams is currently the chief executive of the UK Space Agency and has been a key figure in the creation of the agency and growth in the space sector over the past few years.

Dr Williams comes with both major credibility and contacts within the international space industry - something that is sure to benefit the Australian Space Industry over the coming years starting with the release of the Australian National Space Policy later this year.

What will be of direct interest to Australia is that the United Kingdom previously operated British National Space Council, which was a collection of all UK civilian government departments that operated in the space domain. This arrangement left the BNSC with no ability to drive overall space policy within the UK, a scenario that Australia currently finds itself in. Dr Williams helped transition the BNSC to the current UK Space Agency, which has led to recent growth within the UK Space Industry, and widespread praise for the stronger economic and scientific benefits from the new arrangements. In  2010/2011 the UK Space Industry turnover grew to £9.1bn from £7.5bn in 2008/09.

Within his new role, Dr Williams will oversee Australia's Square Kilometer Array facilities, one of the world's largest scientific projects currently under development.

Welcome Dr. Williams, and we look forward to you helping to grow Australia's space capabilities.

Australia's role in Curiosity's Mars Landing

I've hesitated to write a blog post on Australia's role in NASA's Curiosity Mars mission - not because it isn't a great topic or story, but because there has been such substantial coverage of the topic in the mainstream Australian media.

In light of the successful touchdown on Mars, I just couldn't resist putting a few notes down about it for those who like to follow the blog.

First and foremost, the NASA Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla (just outside of Canberra) was the prime communications receiving station on earth to communicate with the Curiosity Spacecraft for the decent and landing today. As a back up, both the Parkes telescope and New Norica facility in Western Australia were also used as backup communications links. A large crowd gathered at  Tidbinbilla today to watch the even, with some even arriving at 9am to get the best seats in the house!

Our second major involvement is that the Curiosity rover has touched down within the Gale Crater is in fact named after Walter Frederick Gale, a Sydney banker and astronomer who undertook many observations of Mars, and subsequently had the Gale crater named in his honour. An interesting article about Walter Gale can be found here on the Cosmos website by Jonathan Nally.

Thirdly is Marion Anderson's involvement - a geologist from Monash university - who was involved in the landing site selection for the Curiosity mission. Alan Kerlin has an interesting interview with Marion over here.

Finally, Dr Penny King - a geologist from the Australian National University will be helping to control the scientific instruments of the Curiosity mission from NASA's JPL. No doubt, Dr King will be very excited that  Curiosity has successfully landed on Mars - as the science is just about to begin!

Congratulations to all those involved in the mission - particularly those at NASA who have worked so long and hard for this moment. I look forward to hearing of the many discoveries that will be made through such an important mission.

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.

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.

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.