By Lily Nothling <\/p>\n
Posted March 27, 2017 16:24:50 <\/p>\n
Australia's contribution to space exploration lags shamefully behind the rest of the world, experts say. <\/p>\n
Panellists at the World Science Festival's Earth 2.0 forum criticised Australia's lack of a space agency, flagging it as an important area of investment in the future. <\/p>\n
Andrew Thomas, Australian-born NASA astronaut and the first Australian to travel to space, said the space industry was valued at $350 billion a year worldwide, and growing at $10 billion a year. <\/p>\n
\"Australia's current share is 0.8 per cent, which is shameful,\" Dr Thomas said. <\/p>\n
He said while an Australian space agency would not yet be concerned with launching people into space, there were a range of reasons why an agency was a valuable proposition. <\/p>\n
\"We're talking about satellite imagery, Earth monitoring, ocean monitoring, environmental monitoring, national security and defence monitoring,\" he said. <\/p>\n
Geologist and president of the Mars Society Australia, Jon Clarke, said Australia exposed itself to significant vulnerabilities by not having its own satellite resources. <\/p>\n
He said Australian bushfire monitoring system Sentinel relied on raw satellite data being processed in the United States, which posed a major risk during the US Government shut-down of 2013. <\/p>\n
\"Because government workers had to handle [the data], they couldn't do it,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"Right in the middle of the bush fire season, we lost one of our key strands in bushfire monitoring. <\/p>\n
\"We could've had another Victorian bushfire, or another Canberra bushfire without the early warning, without the remote sensing to allow us to predict it.\" <\/p>\n
He said our reliance on outsourcing satellite resources had impacts across the board. <\/p>\n
\"All of our satellite navigation we get for free, if countries start charging us for space navigation services, where will we be?\" he said. <\/p>\n
Dr Clarke said the Australian public needed to put pressure on the Government to overcome political hostility towards space exploration. <\/p>\n
\"Those of us who think Australia should have a space agency have been trying to convince the Government to do this for 50 years, and we haven't quite succeeded yet,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"If we as a people want to have a say in what happens with solar system exploration, we need to be lobbying our politicians to invest money, stimulate industry and stimulate research into these fields. <\/p>\n
\"No bucks, no Buck Rogers.\" <\/p>\n
Dr Thomas said a space agency would unlock Australia's potential to be involved in space exploration in the future. <\/p>\n
\"The naysayers say Australia doesn't need a space industry because it doesn't have a space program, but Australia doesn't have a space program because it doesn't have a space industry,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"A human stepping onto Mars will be one of the great undertakings of the 21st century, and I certainly hope we get to see it happen.\" <\/p>\n
This story is part of a collaboration for the World Science Festival between QUT and the ABC. <\/p>\n
Topics: science-and-technology, earth-sciences, astronomy-space, space-exploration, australia <\/p>\n
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