Utilising Australia’s unique geography to develop space analogue facilities

Jeff Ayton, Annalea Beattie/Guy Murphy, Andrea Boyd, Gordon Cable, Joshua Chou, Jon Clarke, Kevin Ferguson, Julie Hides, Penny King, Ed Kruzins, Andrew Laslett, Anna Moore, Steven Moore, Cindy Ong, Sarah Jane Pell, Jonathon Ralston, Anatoly Rozenfeld, Aude Vignelle

Leader: Kimberley Clayfield Hosts: Jason Dowling and Nathan O’Callaghan

CSIRO define space analogue facilities as including ground-based environments for humans and robotic exploration and habitation; ground-based satellite calibration and validation; and space environment testing facilities. CSIRO want to engage with Australian universities, industry, government and relevant societies to identify: What analogue facilities are currently available within Australia? Are there additional analogue facilities that Australia could host, and what are our competitive advantage in hosting them would be? What new future science can be done from existing and potential facilities that would offer new opportunities to the Australian space sector? Is there a role for the CSIRO, and what would it be?

Analogues in Australia: from the lab, to the field. CSIRO Space Technology Future Science Platform scoping event, Kintore Avenue Site in Adelaide, 20 Feb 2020.

CSIRO Space Technology Future Science Platform leader Kimberley Clayfield opened the space analogue facility exploration event and provided an overview of initiatives under the Space FSP, which build on opportunities identified in the CSIRO Space Roadmap 2018 focusing on industry. NASA JSC doctor Eric Anderson spoke about risks and analogues in the human Space Flight directorate from earth too low earth orbit, the moon and then Mars. His interest was in providing an overview framing the question of risk/solution. Dr. Jeff Anton the chief medical officer for the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) manages teams at four facilities including Macquarie Island, Casey, Davis and Mawson Stations. These stations accommodate small crews or 14 to 20 people from winter to summer. This is an isolated analogue environment with no possibility of medical evacuation during winter. The 9 months of total isolation are referred to as ICE, or I quote, “life in a freezer”. Crews must be able to perform self-operation and so train in rural medical and remote medicine. The AAD remote operational medical team has the equivalent of 5000 person years of data in a space analogue environment. Dr. Gordon Cable also spoke about the desert based planetary and microgravity exploration and research into human health. John Clarke outlined the Australian Mars Society analogue site recommendations relating to the lessons learned from the Mars desert research station in Utah USA to areas scoped in South Australia for the purpose of future habitable Mars analogue sites. Dr. Penny King spoke about advancing space fields of exploration through geology... [More to follow].

⇐ Back to Speaker ⇐ See Astronautics ⇐ Full list of Publications