AUSTRALIA IN SPACE
AROSE is helping take Australia’s remote mining capabilities into space By Andrew Curran Correspondent MySecurity Media
42 | Australia in Space Magazine
T
he Western Australia mining sector has a longstanding reputation for being at the forefront of remote mining technologies. Big-name miners like Fortescue, BHP, Rio Tinto, and Newmont have invested heavily in automated machinery and remote-controlled processes. Now the push is on to transfer Western Australia's remote mining capabilities to space, with widespread acknowledgement Australia's expertise in this area could give the country a crucial edge in the space sector. In 2018, the Australian Government established the Australian Space Agency (ASA) to manage and guide Australia's growing involvement in the space sector. Right away, the ASA identified the robotics and automation capacities that existed in the mining and resources sectors as a valuable capability many other countries vying to compete in the space sector lack. Australia isn't new to the space sector. South Australia's Woomera Rocket Range was a busy place in the 1950s and 1960s. During those two decades, with the Cold War in full swing, Woomera was the second busiest rocket range in the world after Cape Canaveral. But in later decades, Australia's interest and involvement in the space sector waned. It is only more recently, as space became increasingly commercialised and subject to growing military interest, that Australia officially
*Artists impression
began to get involved again. On the back of that renewed commercial, defence, and government interest, and with local space startups popping up like mushrooms, the Australian Government set up the ASA. The space agency quickly confirmed that remote mining technology was Australia's ticket into the space sector. The potential to transfer remote mining technology to space wasn't going unnoticed in Western Australia either. In 2020, with funding from the Western Australian Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, a Perth-based not-for-profit consortium called AROSE, or Australian Remote Operations in Space and on Earth, was formed. Michelle Keegan, Program Director at AROSE, says Australia's remote operations expertise at the time was strong, and the not-for-profit was set up to create a group that pulled together and leveraged that expertise to take it into space. She says forming around the same time the ASA was established was a case of good timing. However, the ASA also being on the same wavelength regarding remote operations capabilities in Australia's own backyard was even more fortuitous. "Until you're in the space sector, it isn't until you really become aware of the amazing (remote operations) capability that just sits here… It is a new industry but growing quite rapidly, and a great space," Ms Keegan says. The ASA says “Australia is a world leader in remote
