NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and US Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy are set to visit Australia this week to highlight the close collaboration of the two countries in space innovations.
Australia’s space partnership with the US dates back to the 1950s— a collaboration that includes helping to broadcast the Apollo 11 Moon landing to the world and tracking the most recent Artemis mission.
Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic said he is slated to meet with Nelson during the visit to discuss how the two countries’ long-standing partnership will continue long into the future.
To mark the visit, Husic also unveiled grants that will go towards two successful Australian consortiums under the government’s Moon to Mars Trailblazer initiative— the AROSE and the EPE and Lunar Outpost consortium, which will each receive $4 million.
The two organisations will design early-stage prototypes of a semi-autonomous rover as part of stage one of the Trailblazer program.
“Drawing on Australia’s world-leading remote operations, the rover will collect lunar soil known as regolith from the Moon and deliver it to a NASA payload, which will attempt to extract oxygen from the sample,” Husic said.
Slated for launch by 2026, the rover is part of the NASA Moon to Mars mission, which will mark a major milestone in the effort to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon.
Each consortium is comprised of different Australian industries, space startups, major resource companies, universities, and other research partners.
“It is great that, with this announcement, Administrator Nelson will get to witness first-hand the extensive knowledge and capability in our space sector, as well as robotics and automation more broadly,” the Australian minister said.
“From those selected to be part of the Trailblazer program, to other industry success stories and our impressive universities and research organisations, Australia has much to be proud of,” Husic added.
