Dr Megan Clark – Head of Australian Space Agency
Rotary Club of Dalkeith Annual Business Lunch held at Royal Perth Golf Club on 18th Oct.
Introduction of speaker by John Hopkins OA.
Megan’s resume is very impressive including being a Rotary Exchange Student and a West Coast Eagles fan.
Schooling at PLC in Perth. BSc. Hons. from UWA. Dr Sc. from Queens University in Canada.
Work Experience.
Mine Geologist with WMC.
Director of Rothschilds.
Senior Management roles with BHP.
CEO of CSIRO.
Non-exec Director of Rio Tinto.
May 2018 appointed Head of Australian Space Agency.
John quoted Megan as saying “No other industry can inspire nations quite like space, where human ambition can set its sights on interplanetary missions, colonisation beyond Earth and the opportunity of finding new life. We can dream this big because of the space-based technologies that have connected the world in unprecedented ways, and in the coming decades Australia has the opportunity to become a global leader in pushing Earth’s links with space even further.”
He invited Megan to speak on this topic.
Megan Clark’s Speech
Megan was a Rotary Exchange student in Brazil and it changed her life. She said, “Rotary makes a difference in the community and in the world and it’s a pleasure to be here today speaking to you about the Australian Space Agency”.
The Space Agency or more correctly the National Civil Space Agency was launched just 12 weeks ago and she gave us a progress update of what they have achieved so far.
Australia was a leader in space and telecommunications for many years. Did we know that Australia was the third country to launch a satellite into space? Did we know that the first commercial telephone call was made from WA? Did we know that one of 3 global deep space communication centres was based in Australia at Tidbinbilla in the ACT? However, over recent years we have fallen behind and we need to lift our game. The Australian Space Agency is to transform and grow a globally respected Australian space industry that lifts the broader economy and inspires and improves the lives of Australians. This will be underpinned by strong international and national engagement.
The space industry has an annual growth of 8-10%pa, this must be good for the economy and jobs.
During the review phase prior to the launch of the agency, Megan and her team listened to the Australian space community and documented their desires as a requirement for a single door to govt on space, a single voice on space to the wider community and for the establishment of a legal framework to facilitate for the future development of space.
After the review, the govt decided to financially support two major recommendations
- $225 million for precise positioning technology that makes GPS signals accurate to centimetres, not metres, which unlocks efficiency and automation possibilities in agriculture, mining and transport
- $36.9 million to improve “Digital Earth Australia”, a platform that assembles global satellite images of Australia in a user-friendly and publicly accessible way. Megan showed several very interesting images taken from this advanced platform development. Canada is now looking at using this technology
The govt. also budgeted a further $41m over 4 years as Seed Funding for the establishment of the Australian Space Agency of which Megan is the Head including providing $15m for grants that the agency will administer over 3 yrs.
In the first 3 months, 20.3 million Australians have heard about the APA in all the states and territories of the nation.
They set a target of attracting a $1B of inbound space-related investment. To date, they have identified $350m including an agreement with the French space agency, an agreement with Airbus to launch satellites from Wyndham, an agreement for SITAEL to establish a satellite manufacturing facility in Adelaide and agreements with the UK and Canadian space agency.
Also in this time frame, whilst the liberal govt was going through its functions, the APA had 2 of
Its staff organise for its enabling legislation to pass through both the House of Reps and the Senate in a 2-week period, possibly an Australian record.
Responsibilities in this bill are defined as
- 1 voice for space in Australia
- 1 door for enquiries on space in Aust
- 1 policy for civil space development in Aust
- Connect all states and territories in a common set of objectives about space
- Act as the signatory along with 18 other countries in creating a rule of law for space, essential for the future sustainable commercial development of space.
Priorities are:
- Develop communication technologies, services and ground stations of global best practice
- Take the next jump in communication speed, up to 13 Tb/sec using laser satellite comms, this will be 5 x 5G speed.
- WA will have 2 laser downlinks this coming year, 1 military and 1 civil.
- Space situational awareness and debris monitoring – Australia will be a key node in the global wide space debris monitoring program to protect the earth and its space infrastructure from debris-induced damage.
- Position, navigation and timing infrastructure, i.e. advanced GPS
- Remote asset management of space infrastructure using the skills developed in WA to manage remote mine site but applied to space.
- R&D into leapfrog technologies such as Quantum storage satellites and hybrid rocket propulsion.
Megan wants to APA to inspire Australians to be involved in the Luna gateway as a stepping stone to Mars. To caucus with the children of Australia to create a new generation of space savvy Australians and to leave a legacy of a Space Agency the Australian can be rightly proud of.
Questions
- Why were SITAEL interested in establishing in Australia? – Main reasons were proximity to Asia with a known rule-based legal system and a good skills base that they can easily draw on to man the facility.
- Your bill was passed under a Liberal Govt., do you believe your funding is secure? – good question, the seed funding is secure for the first 5 years and the bill got bipartisan support in both houses of parliament so reasonably sure it is secure and that the govt sees this initiative as something that Australia can excel at on the global stage.
- Why Australia? - Our can-do attitude has impressed all the inbound investors. The French President, Emanuel Macron, recently commented in a speech that when Australia wake-up and focus on space they will be an important and competitive player on the global stage and Megan commented that this reputation will be a real positive for the future of the agency and Australia’s presence in the rapidly growing industry.
Author and photographer: John Bolto