Peter Moar, Roger Franzen and Anntonette Dailey from Engineers Australia’s National Committee for Space Engineering (NCSpE) will showcase Australia’s growing space ambitions at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, delivering a paper on a vision and strategy for ensuring a capable and competent Australian space industrial ecosystem.
According to the NCSpE, this could be significantly progressed if Australia sought associate membership of the European Space Agency (ESA), to gain expertise, boost capability-building and create industrial opportunities.
“We believe the fastest pathway to global competitiveness is membership of the European Space Agency, which would provide immediate access to world-class expertise, accelerate capability-building and deliver long-term industrial returns – replicating Canada’s proven success as an ESA associate member.”
The committee highlights that building a sustainable space industry will also strengthen Australia’s broader engineering and innovation capacity. Complex engineering capabilities developed for the space sector can drive new technologies, create jobs and boost economic growth across multiple industries.
Australia faces unique challenges in this area, including geographic remoteness from major global supply chains and a relatively small and dispersed population. These factors make it difficult to establish and sustain high-complexity industries at scale, compared to northern hemisphere nations. The NCSpE contends that a membership with the ESA could help bridge that gap.
Members can read more in the NCSpE’s space policy advice paper, which outlines the full case for an ESA membership.