Neil A. Hogan Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
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What a time to be alive! Check out a replay of this live stream. Find out more about the Super Heavy Launch Vehicle, due to be ready for missions in about six months. Space Stations, the Moon, Mars and beyond.
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If you haven’t heard, Australia now has an official department called the Australian Space Agency (launched 1st July 2018).
Of course, we’ve been heavily involved in space work since at least early last century. Even our tracking stations were instrumental in getting the moon landing event’s signal to Earth. The signal was received at Goldstone, Honeysuckle Creek near Canberra, and the Parkes Radio Astronomy Site in New South Wales, and then retransmitted. Without Australia’s help, the rest of the world wouldn’t have been able to see Neil Armstrong on the moon live.
So, we’ve been involved in Space for a very long time!
But, while we’ve had many space related disparate systems in place for decades, the RAAF Woomera Range Complex in South Australia is probably one of the longest.
Having been established in 1947 (hmm, that year sounds familiar), and also known as the Woomera Rocket Range, it’s always seemed to me to be a futuristic space port. Military weapons testing and experimentation, and lots of reported UFO activity (well, testing of advanced technologies at the very least.)
As the complex is over 400 kilometers away from Adelaide, it is quite a forgotten and seemingly secret area. In fact, you could even say that the area could be classed as Australia’s answer to Area 51. It’s not so secret though. You can find out more about the RAAF Woomera Range Complex history here
Rocket launch 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPOK3R-JtwI
Rocket launch 1967
I’d love to work there, from a fantasy point of view. But the reality is that it is hard, dangerous work, and you need to have a certain strong mindset to be able to do it. (It is a military research base, after all.)
And so, the Australian Space Agency has been set up for those who want to play in the business field of space, rather than do the grunt work of putting interplanetary missiles together.
If you’ve got great management and negotiation skills, and know how to sell technology, and space services, and you’re an Australian citizen with plenty of government work experience to executive level 1 or APS level 6, you could be what they’re looking for.
Find out the latest Australian Space Agency jobs here
The Australian Space Agency is temporarily based in Canberra, until the other Australian states have finalised and submitted their proposals. Personally, I’d love the agency to be close to where I live, but as this is for the future of all Australians, and the world, it should be somewhere that can generate the most business and jobs.
Here’s my take on where the first agency could be set up.
Arguably, Adelaide is currently set up to be the best location for a department focused on innovation and science, as well as being so close to Woomera. There are already multiple aerospace organisations there, such as Boeing Defence, and the local government is strongly focused on making South Australia a city of the future.
Melbourne would come a close second with so much research and development going on in multiple universities. Not to mention having the largest population of people interested in space in Australia. (Asgardia Melbourne Member List) With so many students in Melbourne happy to work there for free, there is ample opportunity to build it on a shoestring and expand it quickly, investing spare money into R&D. (Australian Space Agency? Work for free? What are you talking about?! I’d pay to be able to work there! LOL)
In regards to being an easy stop for officials, Canberra is best placed for this, and has plenty of space to expand. I think it’ll remain in Canberra for quite some time before branching out.
For having all the action in one place, and for bringing much needed investment into the area, I’d say Darwin would be a great location for not only a space agency, but also a working space port. Mainly due to it having a lot of convenience, plenty for tourists to do, a lot of opportunity for international businesspeople to make deals, and close to the equator, thereby reducing the cost of rocket launches thanks to having the already boosted Earth speed spin of over 400 kilometers an hour. However, the city is way too hot for many so if you plan to work a long time there, I hope you have plenty of melanin to cope. (I’d personally prefer a job in the antarctic rather than go anywhere near the equator again, or at the very least have my own personal refrigerator and sun protection suit!)
Perth is currently too far away from everything, direct flights to London notwithstanding, and firing rockets above the Indian ocean for safety, against the spin of the Earth, isn’t financially feasible. But Western Australia generally has some great places a space port could be set up. You could have the agency in Perth, and the Port three thousand kilometers away in the West Kimberley region. A great place could be the abandoned Ellendale Diamond Mine. You could set up a space port there, and while building it, dig for diamonds – killing two birds with one gemstone! Some of those underground tunnels would be ideal for a refit as a secret underground base.
Then again, if money saving and safety is key, then Cape York in Queensland is ideal. Closest point to the equator, near an already built airport, not many people nearby and plenty of space either side of the peninsula for the occasional faulty rocket.
My personal feeling is that the main location of the Australian Space Agency will end up being all over Australia. Especially as each state can offer unique benefits. I’m sure the current lobbying to get the first official location will be long forgotten when we have an outpost in every city. And with over 60,000 abandoned mines across the country, there are plenty of places where underground departments could be built for data storage, and keeping computer systems cool for launches. Every town could have a space port!
And, if we act now, we could begin converting all of Australia into one combined continent-port where interplanetary moon-sized ships could easily ‘dock’ in our million square kilometers of deserts, depending on their mass and gravity strength!
(Trivia. Yes, Australia is wider than the moon, and even if it docked with the outback, the curvature of the moon would still put it above all our cities. When we finally work out how to control gravity, we could bring it down and mine it! Hmm, I feel a story coming on.)
Update 060718. Check out this awesome article about Australia’s space exploits here from Business Insider