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Accelerating the Space Industry A message from new Agency Head, Enrico Palermo I am honoured and privileged to come back home to Australia for the amazing opportunity to lead the Australian Space Agency. I congratulate and thank Dr Megan Clark AC for her leadership standing up the Agency and for creating the conditions for growth. To this role I bring a strong industry and entrepreneurial focus, engineering background and international networks to further advance our goal of tripling the size of Australia’s civil space sector to $12 billion and adding an extra 20,000 jobs by 2030. The Australian Government has invested more than $700 million in the civil space sector since the Agency’s establishment in 2018. Our team has helped position the industry for success by delivering and implementing the Australian Civil Space Strategy, building new infrastructure, working with domestic and international companies and agencies to create space-based products and services, and partnering
with NASA on its inspirational Moon to Mars space exploration program. We’re also ensuring the space National Manufacturing Priority plays a vital role in the Government’s $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy. As the Agency moves into our third year of operations, 2021 will have a strong focus on delivery. We will continue delivering technical roadmaps to support our Civil Space Priority Areas. We will also continue setting the pathway for safe space related activities for the nation, on Earth and in space while encouraging innovation and entrepreneurialism. As an engineering and science graduate, inspiring STEM in the next generation is extremely important to me, and to creating a future diverse workforce that will grow the national space industry. I’m excited for the opening of our Australian Space Discovery Centre at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide in the first half of 2021. I look forward to working with the industry, research sector and government to build national capability,
open doors internationally, ensure safe space activities that support innovation and entrepreneurialism, inspire our nation, and seize the enormous opportunities ahead on our mission to grow and transform the industry. Enrico Palermo Head, Australian Space Agency | Jan 21
ESA, Australia to build new deep space antenna near Perth The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Australian Space Agency have announced the construction of a second 35m deep space radio antenna at the New Norcia station, 140km north of Perth in Western Australia. The 620-tonne Deep Space Antenna 2 (DSA 2) will cost €45m to build and, when complete, will be sensitive enough to detect signals “far weaker than a mobile phone on the surface of Mars”. In fact, the dishes can communicate with spacecraft as far out as 1.5 billion kilometres – about the distance from Earth to Saturn – which they do by targeting the area of sky where the spacecraft is. The first DSA was completed in 2002, and was designed to communicate
with the ESA’s Mars missions, among others. DSA-1 also provides support to missions operated by other agencies under resource-sharing agreements. The ESA has two other facilities, one in Malargüe, Argentina, and another in Cebreros, Spain. These will be used to control the growing number of deep space missions that are being undertaken, such as the ESA’s ExoMars rover, due to be rolling over the surface of the red planet next year. The sensitivity of DSA 2 will be enhanced by a new technique in space communications technology: an “antenna feed” that will be cooled to –263°C, thereby increasing data return by up to 40%. The ESA describes an antenna feed as “a gizmo used
to transmit and receive deep space signals”. Josef Aschbacher, the directorgeneral of the ESA, commented: “We are happy to announce the latest addition to ESA's state-of-the-art deep space communication network and this important next step in our relationship with the Australian Space Agency. “The ESA’s network is crucial infrastructure that helps enable cooperation and cross-support with missions flown by partners like Nasa, Japan’s Jaxa and other agencies, and this boosts science return and efficiency for all involved.” The dish will be built by a contractor from an ESA member state. Construction is due to be completed in 2024. 43
