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THE IMPACT OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY ON OUR LIVES

The impact of space technology on our lives

Space technology is used by everyone, every day!

07 August 2024

Space technology is integral to our daily lives. The space sector in Australia, and in Adelaide in particular, is experiencing unprecedented growth in research and development and international collaborations that take advantage of increasing opportunities in the space economy.

In my last blog post I wrote about navigating today’s connected world, and about how embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) can lead to operational improvements, cost savings, and a competitive edge for businesses.

I learnt more about the latest developments in IoT when I attended the 17th Australian Space Forum on July 24th & 25th, hosted in the Adelaide Convention Centre by The Andy Thomas Space Foundation.

Here’s some interesting information I learned at the Space Forum about the latest research in space technology, and how space technology can be used in IoT to benefit business and society.

Research & development

There are some amazing discoveries being made in space research and development, with Adelaide-based and Australian organisations participating in international projects.

Moon to mars mission

NASA is establishing sustainable exploration on the Moon through the Artemis human exploration program, collaborating with businesses and international partners. This research and development by NASA to return to the Moon will prepare us for missions to travel on to Mars.

NASA is preparing the Artemis II mission for a launch by September 2025. Artemis II builds on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I in 2022, and will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on deep space missions. The Artemis II flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the launch rocket and Orion spacecraft, and will pave the way to land the first woman on the Moon in Artemis III.

Artemis III is slated for a September 2026 launch. Astronauts will travel to lunar orbit, and two crew members will descend to the Moon’s surface and spend approximately a week near the south pole of the Moon conducting new science experiments, before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to earth.

The Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars initiative is a significant investment in Australian industry to grow the national space sector. The Australian program will accelerate the growth of our space industry and showcase our best ideas and technologies to the world. Australia is advancing our contribution to the global space economy, while also supporting NASA’s Artemis endeavours and future space missions.

The Moon to Mars initiative includes participation in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lunar Trailblazer mission. The goal of Trailblazer is to understand the form, abundance, and distribution of water on the Moon, and the lunar water cycle.

Australian companies are participating in Trailblazer to design and development an Australian-made lunar rover go to the Moon. At the Space Forum we heard from one of the Australian participants in Trailblazer, a partnership between Fugro and AROSE, which has developed a lunar rover.

Plants in space

growing plants on the moon — image: iGrow News

Another aspect of NASA’s Artemis human exploration program is the ability to grow plants in space to sustain human life. It is a 3-year round-trip to reach Mars, so biological support systems are a vital requirement for mission success.

As well as testing for water sources at the Moon’s south pole, other Artemis III experiments will be used to develop understanding of agriculture in extraterrestrial environments, under the Lunar Effects on Agricultural Fauna (LEAF) program.

At the Space Forum we heard from the University of Adelaide about its participation in the LEAF program, in collaboration with partners from Australian and American universities, the United States Department of Agriculture and NASA. Research is being conducted by the University of Adelaide for growing zero waste plants which are optimised for controlled environments. These plants will support complete nutrition plant-based foods, on demand bio-resource production, and a future-ready workforce and society.

Optical communication

quantum optical satellite communication — image: European Space Agency

Satellite communication is used by everybody, every day and is a crucial underpinning for our society and economy. We are critically reliant on data from satellites, and there is an increasing demand for high speed, secure and reliant communications using satellites.

At the Space Forum we heard from the Australian National University’s Institute for Space about research and development in optical satellite communication, using optical beams between satellites in orbit and between ground stations on the earth and satellites.

Optical satellite communication has the potential for low latency, high speed, highly secure signals. This will be a step-chance in communication technology, as was our move from copper wire telephone cables to fibre-optic cables. NASA has conducted a test of optical satellite communication which showed that 10 terabytes of data can be downloaded in a single pass.

However, this new technology is still in its early days of development, there are problems to overcome. Whilst using optical beams between satellites in space is relatively easy, there are distortions to the optical beam between satellites and ground stations, caused by weather and atmospheric disturbances. The Australian National University and its research collaborators are developing quantum technology for optical beam distortion corrections in ground stations.

Centimetre-level accurate positioning systems

Satellites over Australia — image: Geoscience Australia

At the Space Forum we were told by Geoscience Australia that reliable and accurate centimetre-level positioning services that are now freely available across Australia.

Geoscience Australia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Analysis Centre Software (Ginan) provides a real-time positioning correction service and additional positioning products. Ginan is freely available through open-source software in GitHub, to enable use of precise positioning in software systems.

In traditional positioning systems the satellites, space environment, and the atmosphere all influence satellite signals, resulting in potential errors in positions determined by ground receivers. Uncorrected signals provide accuracy only up to 5–10 metres.

The Ginan tools take signal data from multiple satellites and constellations and combines it with predictions from the models to produce a correction signal. When users apply this signal with a GNSS receiver, it reliably enhances the accuracy of calculated positions to within a few centimetres.

Ginan is however only available in areas which have mobile phone coverage. Another positioning system which will provide improved accuracy in regional and remote areas, as well as in maritime zones, is the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN). This is a joint initiative of the Australian and New Zealand governments that provides highly accurate positioning services for Australia and New Zealand, through augmented and corrected satellite navigation signals directly from the satellite, rather than through a mobile phone. SouthPAN provides as low as 10-centimetre level accuracy to be available everywhere, overcoming gaps in mobile, internet and radio communications.

Use cases for space and IoT

Here are just a few use cases which use satellite communications and positioning systems, that I’ve heard about at the Space Forum and in the media. There are of course many more opportunities to use space technology, I challenge you to dream big and reach for the stars!

Bushfire management

2007 Kangaroo Island bushfires — image: NASA Visible Earth

Satellite images are used in various ways to manage the land to reduce the risk of bushfires, and to proactively fight fires that do occur.

At the Space Forum the Chief Data Officer of the South Australian Government’s Office for Data Analytics spoke about data analysis using satellite photos to monitor bush fires, providing situational awareness for on the ground fire fighters. For example, the 2007 Kangaroo Island fires caused massive damage, and smoke blanketed the city of Adelaide when the wind changed. Satellite photos were used to track these fires, and high-resolution photos were sought and analysed for targeted areas where it was important to learn more detail about the fires. Analysis of real-time satellite imagery provided situational awareness for on the ground fire fighters.

The Northern Australian Fire Information (NAFI) system is a crucial tool for fire management in northern Australia and was recently featured on an episode of ABC’s landline program. NAFI has a 20-year history of controlled burns and fire scars, helping Arnhem Land people and cattle station owners plan and manage mosaic-patterned controlled burns that keep fuel loads low. NAFI also provides real-time data on fire activity, including hotspots, to proactively fight uncontrolled bushfires late in the dry season.

Water quality monitoring

In 2023 CSIRO launched AquaWatch Australia, in partnership with SmartSat CRC and a network of collaborators, to develop a national system for monitoring water quality, a ‘weather service’ for water quality. AquaWatch includes early warning forecasts of events such as algal blooms that pollute water sources and kill marine life. It has multiple test sites with the ability to monitor bays, coastal wetlands, rivers, dams, lakes, aquaculture farming and coral reefs, including the Southern Great Barrier Reef.

The AquaWatch system will now also be established in the UK, following bilateral support and co-funding from the UK Space Agency and the Australian Space Agency. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite is one source of satellite data that will be used for the AquaWatch UK mission.

Farm management

IoT in cattle monitoring — image: Digital Journal

Space has a role through precise positioning and communications systems to provide more food from less land, addressing challenges of rising costs, climate change, weather events, remote and large-scale operations labour shortages, emission reductions, biosecurity threats, and limits to market access.

In addition to the satellite positioning systems I mentioned earlier in this blog post, South Australian companies such as Fleet Space and Myriota have launched low earth orbit nano-satellites, which can provide full coverage across Australia’s remote regions. These nano-satellites fill the holes and black spots we currently have using standard telecommunications satellites.

Low-cost trackers are now available for animals in remote regions of Australia to be monitored using positioning systems. These systems monitor animal movements and behaviour, to alert the farmer of problems that can then be proactively managed. For example, when predators are around flocks of sheep they tend to run in circles. Sick cows tend to isolate from their herd and be inactive, so farmers can be notified about animals in distress before the problem is irreversible.

Water tank monitoring is one of the services which has been delivered to farmers using Myriota positioning systems. Farmers with large properties in remote regions of Australia have water tanks which they drive out to and check, a labour intensive, costly exercise. Having remote tank monitoring is very cost effective and can save the lives of animals. When the water tank monitoring was first installed on one farm, the farmer thought the software had failed, because it showed a tank which he had just checked the day prior was empty. It turned out the pump had in fact failed and the tank was actually empty. It would normally been another two weeks before the tank was checked again, and the cattle would have been in stress without any available water.

Can your business benefit from space technology?

rocketing into the future — image: Microsoft stock images

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog post about space technology and learning about the latest research and developments that were presented at the Australian Space Forum.

The use cases I’ve included about using satellite communications and positioning systems are just of few of what I heard about at the Space Forum. These barely scratch the surface of what’s possible, there are unlimited opportunities to benefit from the latest developments. I encourage you to use your imagination about how problems in your business and industry might be addressed by space technology.

If you know you need something, but don’t know what that is, I’m here to help. With 35 years of experience in the information technology industry and 15 years of experience on boards of directors, I am perfectly placed to guide you through what’s best for your business when it comes to strategic planning and procurement of space technology.

If you’d like to talk further about anything I’ve written about get in contact with me today, I’m always happy to meet and have a chat over a coffee.

Australian Space Forum Exhibitors

There was a large expo hall at the forum, with 61 exhibitors from Australia,USA, New Zealand and India. Here’s a list with links to each of their websites if you’d like to learn more about these companies. I’ve noted which of these are South Australian companies!

• Advancing Earth Observation Forum

• AIAA

• AMDA Foundation

• ANT61

• AROSE

• Astroscale U.S. Inc.

• Australian Space Agency(headquartered in Adelaide)

• Australian Space Diversity Alliance

• AVA Challenge

• Blacksky

• Boson Engineering

• Braemac