Editor’s Comment

SYED SHAH – Managing Editor, Manufacturers’ Monthly Comment

Space, a not so distant frontier

ACCORDING to “Global Space Industry Dynamics”, a research paper for the Australian government, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the global space economy was worth an estimated US$345 billion ($491.6 billion) in 2016. There were about 50 nations then, who were involved in the space industry in some capacity. Some had budgets over a billion dollars, while the majority had budgets under $100 million. Australia falls in the latter category. The paper outlined the markets in the space economy that our country should be considering, and these included (among others) space mining, smallsat manufacturing, navigation devices and application, satellite radio, as well as earth observation-driven data analytics. The Australian Space Agency has been hard at work for the past year setting itself goals to increase the size of the local space industry to be worth $10-$12 billion by 2030. It is already working with various states and agencies across the country to ensure that growth happens. Within a few months, the CSIRO launched its report “Space: A Roadmap for Unlocking Future Growth Opportunities for Australia” at the Australian Space Research Conference in the Gold Coast. Science and Technology Minister, Karen Andrews, said the report outlined the business opportunities that a growing space industry would create in the country, and the potential expansion of jobs that could be the result of it. Andrews said that the space sector could create 20,000 new jobs and also increase the importance of studying STEM and understanding the opportunities it can lead to.

South Australia, at the moment, is set to be the home for the Agency. Historically, the state has been at the forefront in supporting the growth of the development of space technology, holding the 2017 leg of the International Astronautical Congress. Although it is set to have 20 full time staff dedicated to it, statistics from the Agency have indicated that in 2018 alone, about 10,000 Australians are employed within the sector.

While Australia does not operate in the capacity of larger space players like the US or China in terms of possessing launch pads, or the building of rockets or space shuttles for space exploration, we can look at other areas such as the miniaturisation of satellites. In doing so, the door to a large number of manufacturing suppliers for the components opens up. In this issue, we spoke to the deputy head of the Australian Space Agency, Anthony Murfett; Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, a company that is working on a launch facility at the Eyre Peninsula; Roger Franzen, a member of Engineer’s Australia’s National Committee on Space Engineering; and Adam Gilmour, CEO of Gilmour Space Technologies, about these possibilities.

From an Australian perspective, it is best to be cautious as well, despite all the excitement about sending objects (and people, hopefully) into space. The space industry needs both talent and experience. However, at this point, the local space industry is still in at its infancy. Local candidates may have already taken their talents to more mature industries overseas. For the space scene to work, talent has to be retained locally and acquired internationally. There needs to be a critical mass of experienced talent to adequately transfer a certain amount of skills to the next generation of talents.

Read more to find out how the industry can make this happen.

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