Private Members' Business - Australian Space Industry

“Twelve, 11, 10, nine—ignition sequence starts—six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. All engines running; lift-off, we have a lift-off!'

These were the words of NASA's Jack King as they launched the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Space has always fascinated me, from having the constellations glow in the dark on my bedroom wall, to building model rockets, to being a proud member of CSIRO's Double Helix Club and to the first time I saw the Apollo 11 re-entry module at the Smithsonian. The exploration of space and humans landing on the moon is a constant reminder that anything is possible.

Neil Armstrong summarised his world view about what space exploration truly means with this quote:

“After all, the earth itself is a spacecraft. It's an odd kind of spacecraft, since it carries the crew on the outside instead of the inside.”

He went on with that analogy, noting that the earth itself and space exploration are both acts of very careful balance; balancing the needs of oxygen and fuel, maintaining the spacecraft or the earth so that you can survive. He said:

“If you're going to run a spaceship, you've got to be pretty cautious about how you use your resources, how you use your crew and how you treat your spacecraft.”

The enlightenment of space travel is to enrich our life here on earth.

While we talk about the exploration of space as a science, it's also an art. The member for Wills highlighted the inspiration that art draws from the exploration of space. I think it's appropriate to note that Apollo was the Greek god who dragged the sun across the sky but was also the Greek god of music, dance and poetry. Funding space exploration is not just about science, it is about art and bringing art and science together.

Western Australia played a proud role in that first moon landing we've spoken about, some 50 years ago. The NASA Carnarvon Tracking Station in the great north of Western Australia was essential. It sent the instruction for what they called the translunar injection; that is, the directive to go out of Earth's orbit, towards the moon and into the moon's orbit. It also tracked the re-entry of the Apollo 11 module.

That's why more space investment should be made in Western Australia. The location of the space agency in Adelaide was a disappointment for many Western Australians. We have so many space assets, and some of the quietest access to the great unknown anywhere on earth. The CSIRO manages the European Space Agency's deep space tracking station in New Norcia, some 130 kilometres from my electorate of Perth. The European Space Agency is keen to partner with the federal government to double the size of that facility, requiring just a $15 million investment—something that the government should consider and, in my view, agree to.

Australia more generally, as everyone else speaking in this debate has noted, should be very proud of our historical role and we should be proud of what we can achieve in the next 50 years. The Australian Civil Space Strategy rightly notes, 'Australia is a world leader in remote asset management in industries including mining, oil, gas, transport, agriculture and fisheries.'

Many of those remote activities and technologies have been developed in my electorate of Perth, including by some of the biggest names in the mining industry: Rio, Fortescue and BHP. But I was disappointed, in reading the civil space strategy, to see that it was a bit Canberra-centric: it mentioned Questacon; it didn't mention any of the great science education facilities across our country. Scitech in my electorate should have deserved a mention if Questacon was worthy of a mention.

Equally, the space strategy notes that we need 'moonshot' projects to inspire that next generation of young people who might be inspired to study in science, technology, engineering or mathematics and also to find those new discoveries. But, again, the space strategy shies away from actually having any of those ideas. It doesn't actually highlight what one of those 'moonshots' that Australia might take the lead on could be. Could it be landing on Mars, or a permanent base on the moon, the building of a new international space station for the next 20 years, or, as the member for Wills has said, the launching of Kanga 1 and the exploration of the moon via Wombat 1—a uniquely Australian space exploration? There is much to do in the exploration of space, and Australia rightly has an important role to play.