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WA UNIVERSITIES TURN THEIR EYE TO SPACE NASA IS INTERESTED IN WHAT WESTERN AUSTRALIA CAN DO IN TERMS OF REMOTE OPERATIONS.
When your multi-billion dollar engineering project is a dozen driving hours from the nearest town, the value of remote operations becomes clear. It’s why Australia’s big miners and offshore gas sectors have invested heavily in robotic automation and remote operations capacity, allowing engineers to drive kilometre-long trains and operate drills or diggers from a desk half a continent away. Now, West Australian research teams are using the same technology that keeps mines running at a distance to push into space, with the help of 46
industry partners already invested in remote engineering. Curtin University and the University of Western Australia have recently launched AROSE – the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth consortium – with the partnership including the universities, state government of Western Australia and industry partners Woodside, Fugro and Nova Systems. The partnership brings together hard-fought expertise in the use of remote engineering — both on land and in offshore gas fields — with the
ambition of using this thinking for space. Planetary geologist and joint West Australian Scientist of the Year Professor Phil Bland says Australian industry experience in remote operations is some of the best in the world. “We can leverage industry expertise in Australia to take remote operations into space, and deliver solutions that benefit the Australia-NASA Moon-toMars program,” said Professor Bland, from Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre. “AROSE brings together the best of Australian industry with the most
