While a large part of the government’s new craze for space has focussed on South Australia, space related activities happen around the country.
New South Wales, for example, just launched a new space research training centre at the University of Sydney, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs and their Applictions (CUAVA), which will target the use of CubeSats, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and their instruments.
UAVs, more commonly known as 'drones', and CubeSats, a new class of 'low cost' research nanosatellites are set to make space more accessible to end-users.
According to the ARC's chief executive officer Professor Sue Thomas, the applications of Cubesats and UAVs will have great importance to the Australian economy, improving satellite communications and observations.The centre, which has been operating since 2017, is now working with 11 partners including from industry, government as well as Australian and American universities.
In line with the objectives of the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centres scheme, which is funding the CUAVA initiative with $4.6 million, a major focus is the training of a skilled workforce that supports the commercial space and UAV industries. At present there are five PhD students and four postdoctoral fellows working on commercialisation projects.
Next year the centre will launch its first satellite into orbit, the CUAVA-1, which will perform a UAV campaign with new instruments that include remote sensing, GPS and communications equipment, as well as sensors to monitor the environment in space.
Improvements in the state’s space communications and capability could mean great advancements in existing satellite systems used for earth and weather observations, high-speed communication and GPS, Minister for Education Dan Tehan said.