Editor's Desk: Implications for Space - Australia's Defence Strategic Review

This is a genuine trilateral undertaking. All three nations stand ready to contribute, and all three nations stand ready to benefit.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, standing alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during the AUKUS announcement, San Diego, March 13 (US time).

Welcome to a special export focused and international edition of the Australia in Space Magazine, released as Official Media Partners to the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium, Colorado Springs, The Andy Thomas Space Foundation’s 15th Australian Space Forum, Adelaide, Space Sustainability Summit, New York, and SpaceTide, Tokyo, amongst others around the world.

This edition follows our participation this year at the Avalon International Airshow, Melbourne and the Global Space and Technology Convention, Singapore. Both were very well attended by international space sector delegations and our interview playlists are available within.

The trilateral security pact, termed AUKUS, announced in San Diego in mid-March that Australia will spend nearly AUD370 billion over the next several decades to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. AUKUS has espoused to “offer a generational change capability” and coinciding with this announcement, Australia had been on a global diplomatic offensive, briefing around 60 countries, including ASEAN nations, Five Eyes partners, and key European nations.

Just ten days later, NASA Administrators Bill Nelson and Pam Melroy used a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra to reflect on Australia’s space milestones and urged the country to continue the momentum. Nelson drew on his two decades of experience as a US Senator to reflect on the geopolitical implications of Australia stepping up its involvement (or not) in the space sector. He said there has never been a better time for Australia to deepen its involvement with space and NASA. “In the aftermath of the AUKUS agreement, Australia will have additional new technologies and a new highly educated and technological workforce. Why not have the parallel development of a space economy?”

To underline Nelson’s call for collaboration, Australia took one step closer to the Moon with the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth (AROSE) consortium, led by Fugro and Nova Systems, selected as one of two successful teams chosen for Stage 1 of the Australian Space Agency’s flagship Trailblazer program. The Trailblazer program will see Australia design, build, test, and operate an Australian-made lunar foundation services rover for NASA’s return to the surface of the Moon. The Trailblazer program requires the rover to be operated remotely to collect lunar soil and deliver it to a NASA-provided processing facility to extract oxygen. This is a critical step to supporting a sustainable human presence on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

In this issue we cover the challenges and importance of space in a globally contested geo-political environment. Dr Malcolm Davis writes on the contested, competitive and complex domain of space being vital for Australia’s security and prosperity. In terms of defence, modern warfare depends on sustained and uninterrupted access to space capabilities for joint and integrated multi-domain operations, and to facilitate network- centric approaches.

In the same week as the AUKUS announcement, the 2030 Space+Spatial Industry Growth Roadmap and the Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) Network were announced. The roadmap lists nine key objectives to be achieved in order to future-proof Australia’s sovereign capabilities in two vitally important industries – with wide-ranging consequences for strengthening defence, safeguarding critical infrastructure, tackling climate change and enhancing disaster resilience.

The Responsible AI Network will be the gateway for Australia’s industries to uplift its practice of responsible AI, expected to be worth $22.17 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Bringing together a national community of practice, guided by world leading expert partners, and enabling Australian businesses with best practice guidance, tools and learning modules, the network is centred around six core pillars: Law, Standards, Principles, Governance, Leadership and Technology.

Dr Carl Seubert and Professor Ryszard Kowalczyk contribute in this issue, highlighting the huge opportunity for Australia to develop AI-based spacecraft autonomy capabilities for the next-generation space systems to enable national missions and achieve home-grown benefits of remote sensing, communications, and other vital services from space.

Shane Keating writes on the early success of the UK-Australia Space Bridge, with the IceCube project, funded through the scheme and managed and led by SmartSat CRC and supported by Austrade, the UK Government and the UK and Australian Space Agencies. The new AI techniques developed from this project are set to provide critical insights into Antarctic Sea ice change to enable enhanced climate forecasting and modelling.

And as a federated national system of government in Australia, Dharshun Sridharan and Nipuni Silva write on the escalation of space activities and the series of space strategies, industry profiles, capability assessments, and more that have been developed at both a national and state level, with arguably an ineffective nexus. While having individual state-based approaches to the Space Domain is not necessarily a bad thing, the analysis suggests that there is an undefined overlap or underlap across these approaches. This is Part 1 of an important overview for what is aptly titled the ‘United States of Australia’.

Finally, throughout this edition we celebrate a number of important industry and event partners, including The Andy Thomas Space Foundation, SSA Space Forum, AMDA, SSTL, SpaceTide, IAC2023 and our own event activities in Australia, including the Indo-Pacific Space & Earth Conference, Perth.

As always, we cover the full diversity of the Australian and international space industry and there is so much more to touch on, including additional, exclusive content in the digital edition.

Enjoy the reading, watching and listening.

Chris Cubbage CPP, CISA, GAICD

Director & Executive Editor