AUSTRALIA IN SPACE
SpAARC ignites Australia’s space sector
By Andrew Curran Correspondent MySecurity Media
40 | Australia in Space Magazine
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he still young Australian space sector is small but already shows signs of punching above its weight. Hundreds of companies, big and small, are establishing space programs in Australia, tapping into a growing skill base, some unique and valuable capabilities, and the increasing government and institutional interest in space. Fugro, a geo-data company, provides geological analysis from most places on Earth - above and below the waterline. Fugro is also an example of a company increasingly interested in expanding their capabilities into space. Last year, after winning funding from the Australian Space Agency (ASA) and Western Australia Government, Fugro confirmed Perth as the primary site for its global robotics and remote operations via the establishment of the Australian Space Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Control Complex (SpAARC). “The remote operation of autonomous and robotic systems in space is a huge area of opportunity for Australian industry, and SpAARC will be critical to us realising that opportunity,” said the Head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo. From its time prospecting some of the Earth’s more challenging underwater and above water terrain, Fugro
already has well established remote operations capabilities. Western Australia is home to some of the world’s biggest and most isolated mining and resource companies, who are also keen users of and have considerable expertise in remote operations. It makes Perth a bit of a hotbed for remote operations research and development. Manned missions to the Moon and beyond capture plenty of headlines, but in reality, manned space missions are dangerous and very expensive. Nearly all ventures into space involved unmanned spacecraft, with the exploration of other planets and moons using remote operations technology – and Australia’s longstanding expertise in this field gives the country’s embryonic space sector a key competitive advantage. That’s something companies like Fugro, via SpAARC, are keen to benefit from. “If we go back to 2015, we were a fairly traditional oil and gas services contractor in Australia,” says Samuel Forbes, Fugro’s SpAARC Director. “We started to solve a number of complex problems that overlap in other industries that overlap the mining sector. They overlap with the military and unbeknownst to us, there was an interesting overlap with the space sector. The nice thing for us is this all lining up with the emerging Australian space sector – the creation of the Australian space industry.
