It’s time Australia entered space

The rise of small spacecraft could launch Australia’s space program, writes Steven Tsitas. Australia has long delayed the development of a space program, placing it in an almost unique position amongst comparable countries.But now we can develop extremely small yet powerful low-cost spacecraft, it’s time to reconsider whether Australia should have its own space program.
The future of a sustainable Australian space program — one that actually designs and builds its own spacecraft, and perhaps a small rocket to launch them — is small, lightweight spacecraft using advanced technology with significant two-way US involvement.My research indicates a spacecraft the size of a typical shoe-box weighing just 8 kilograms, known as a 6U CubeSat, can perform some of the missions of much larger ‘microsatellites’ weighing around 100 kilograms – or roughly the size of a washing machine.
This 10-times size reduction should make the cost of producing a spacecraft 10-times cheaper — around $1 million versus $10 million.The cost may now be low enough to make it politically possible for Australia to have a sustainable space program based on this spacecraft.Utilising this technology would provide economic opportunities for Australia, improve our strategic relationship with the US and inspire the next generation ...