SA reveals ambitious priorities to rocket ahead in space race

SA knows how to grow food in harsh conditions and leaders are hoping such expertise can help feed booming industries.

Launching satellites and growing food on Mars will be listed as key priorities for South Australian industry in a space-sector plan to be released today.

The Adelaide-based Australian Space Agency is aiming to triple the size of the nation’s domestic space industry, to $12bn by 2030, in a bid to create thousands of jobs.

South Australia’s Space Sector Strategy will outline the state’s priorities as part of a plan to attract a disproportionate level of industry activity.

The plan sets out an annual growth rate target for the space sector of 5.8 per cent over the next 10 years, equating to a 2030 revenue of $250m.

SA Space Industry Centre chief executive Richard PriceA

Key priorities in the plan include ensuring SA plays an active role in creating space laws and contributing to food-growing efforts in space.

The strategy sets a goal of SA leveraging its “expertise in food production for extreme environments to support international human spaceflight missions”.

The University of Adelaide and the Adelaide Botanic Garden are expected to help with developing strategies to grow crops on Mars.

SA would become “the Australian centre of expertise in space-based farming and food production”, the strategy says.

It also highlights areas of opportunity for the state including space launches, earth observation, communication technology, space debris monitoring and robotics.

Premier Steven Marshall said the global space sector’s shift to “ small satellites operating in low Earth orbit” was good news for the state.

“Smaller satellites are able to provide accurate data to improve the productivity in a range of sectors from farming, mining, transport and viticulture,” Mr Marshall said.

SA Space Industry Centre chief executive Richard Price said the state’s innovation sector was set to take off.

“While traditional space-related services deliver a large proportion of the revenue attributed to the space sector, there are phenomenal opportunities for the new breed of space-related services that are unencumbered by legacy practice,” he said.