State Government is making a concerted effort to brand South Australia as the space state

OUR state is looking to the stars with the government making a concerted effort to brand South Australia as the space state.

Dr Andy Thomas.

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SPACE may still be the final frontier, but it’s getting closer every day.

The era of spending the equivalent of a medium-sized country’s GDP to send men to the moon has given way to an age of shoebox-sized cube satellites and space tourism.

Space is more accessible than ever, which is why the State Government is making a concerted effort to brand South Australia as the space state.

The not-so-pithily named Space Innovation and Growth Strategy (South Australia) Action Plan is an outline for attracting space-based industries and innovators to SA in an attempt to amass a skills base and generate employment opportunities.

On Thursday a packed house listened to experts at the South Australian Space Forum, and next year Adelaide will host the space Olympics – the 68th International Astronautical Congress.

The congress will see everyone from the heads of the world’s major space agencies – including NASA – to start-ups and hobbyists rubbing shoulders at the Convention Centre.

And the SA space push is a plan which has the backing of a uniquely-qualified person – the only South Australian to have ever left our planet, Dr Andy Thomas.

Astronaut Dr Andy Thomas has flown four shuttle missions and completed a six-and-a-half hour space walk.

“Seeing the enthusiasm with which everyone is embracing the IAC is just great,” Dr Thomas said.

“That’s going to be a pivotal moment for Adelaide and put Adelaide on the world stage.

“It’s huge. It will fill this entire convention centre, including the new wing that’s being built. It’s about 3000 participants from all over the world, representing all the space agencies, including the head of NASA, the head of the European Space Agency, the head of the Russian Space Agency, Japan, Canada – they’ll all be here for a head of agencies meeting to collaborate on their long-term planning for space exploration.”

The 64-year-old astronaut who’s flown four shuttle missions and completed a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk said the old government-driven space programs were giving way to private, entrepreneur-driven model.

“The way it’s been done in the past is the model that was established in the 1960s, where you have large government contracts, big government investments, and the government would pay your costs on a costs plus fixed fee basis,” Dr Thomas said.

“When you have a private company on a costs plus fixed fee contract there’s no incentive to reduce costs. That has been one of the contributing factors to driving up the costs of satellites and space systems. Now there are commercial providers that will sell a service at a fixed price to agencies like NASA. That’s what people like Elon Musk are doing.

A cube satellite.

“The other thing that’s happening in the space business is the embracing of miniaturisation – microsatellites called Cubesats that can be launched as a secondary payload on a mission. That provides a dramatic reduction in costs.”

Dr Thomas said that while space industries would never fill the gaping hole left by the collapse of the manufacturing and the car industry in South Australia, there was no reason why it couldn’t play a significant role in the state’s future economy.

When I was growing up rural industries were the main economic driver, then this turned into natural resources,” Dr Thomas said.

“Of course is when you sell natural resources without value adding you really are selling it at a bargain basement price. I see the Australian economy going from rural resources to natural resources to hi-tech resources. This is the next development, of which space is just one area.”

Dr Thomas had to become a US citizen before he was permitted to train as an astronaut, but he said the increasing democratisation of the industry mean that this probably wouldn’t be the case for young Australians.

Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies - SpaceX.

He said that the rise of space tourism, spearheaded by entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Richard Branson, meant that the once unthinkable possibility of leaving the planet could soon become much more common.

“There will be more opportunities for young kids 20 years from now because of these commercial providers making more flight opportunities,” Dr Thomas said.

“That’s what Elon Musk is doing, Richard Branson is doing a form of it – although his is not quite space, even though he’d have you believe that you’re walking on the moon. The commercial activities will open up so many opportunities.”

Part of the state government’s space strategy involves in increasing focus on science, technology, engineering and maths – the so-called STEM subjects – in schools and this received Dr Thomas’s full blessing.

“If you want to have exciting opportunities and do something interesting with your life, you need an education,” he said.

“Not everyone wants to be an astronaut – you might want to be a great musician, or an actor, or a scientist. The key is always education, and I push hard to make people understand that.

“The education I received at the University of Adelaide made my career as an astronaut possible.”