Building for the moon in a new space era

AWANI

As the U.S. scales back funding for space exploration under its latest federal budget, other countries such as Australia are stepping up to fill the gap. Astro AWANI correspondent Faye Kwan reports on ambitions to drive innovation in the field from Adelaide.

Transcript

00:00As the US scales back funding under its latest federal budget, cancelling high-profile

00:06missions and shuttering NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, other countries are stepping

00:11up to fill the gap. Australia is positioning itself as an emerging leader in space exploration

00:17with ambitions to drive innovation in the field. Astro Awani correspondent Fei Kuan reports

00:23more on this from Adelaide. Australia has long played a supportive role in global space exploration,

00:32but now there's growing ambition to lead. Here at the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources at the

00:38University of Adelaide, cutting-edge technology is being developed for construction on the moon

00:43and for long-term human habitation in space. And with Australia planning to send a rover to the moon,

00:49hopefully by 2029, I speak to Professor Anima Wyatt, Director of Astronaut Autonomy Teaming

00:55over here, on what sets Australia apart in the ever-evolving space race.

01:00So Australia has obviously a lot of space, literally space. It has a lot of clear skies as well

01:06and hopefully a very strong innovation ecosystem. Adelaide University is a leader in this area

01:11with the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources. We're focusing on deep space habitation, but we're

01:16also linked into the ecosystem in South Australia and helping to grow the ecosystem in Australia

01:21more broadly as well. So that's about partnering with international partners like NASA and JAXA and

01:26the ESA, but also partnering with local companies like Neumann Space and ELO2 for the rover as well.

01:32So we have great talent in terms of our students. We have amazing facilities here that are world

01:38leading in terms of analog facilities. And we also have many launch sites in Australia, lots of satellite

01:44launch sites and also with Gilmore Space, hopefully our first shuttle launch very soon. So I think

01:52Australia now has the opportunity to take its place as truly being a space nation and not only just

01:58being a participant in a collaborator with other countries, but to become a leader. Anna outlined how

02:05experts from different disciplines were collaborating to turn deep space exploration into a reality for the

02:12near future. The Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources is focused on long-term deep space

02:18habitation. And what that means is that we're a multidisciplinary group that's interested in

02:22understanding how you prepare roads, how you develop the materials that you need to prepare roads and

02:27also habitats for humans. But we also see humans as a central part of this ecosystem. So we need habitats

02:35that can house the humans. We also need robots that will work with the humans. So then we need to also

02:40understand astronaut autonomy teaming to understand how they'll work together. And we also have members

02:48who work on the regulation aspects of this. So we have a professor of space law and we have architects,

02:54engineers, experts in AI and robotics, as well as civil engineers working together.

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