13th Australian Space Forum

The Andy Thomas Space Foundation is looking forward to welcoming a global audience to the 13th edition of the Australian Space Forum, which will be held on Thursday, 3 March 2022 at the Adelaide Convention Centre in South Australia.

Supported by the Australian Space Agency, the South Australian Space Industry Centre and the SmartSat CRC, the Forum provides the perfect opportunity to stimulate ideas, share information about emerging technologies and network with influential space sector leaders and the broader community.

Participants can attend in-person, or virtually through the event’s global interactive platform.

Forum Program

The space sector in Australia is experiencing unprecedented growth as industry, academia, and government work together to expand their activities and develop international relationships for ongoing opportunity and success within the space economy.

The following program outline highlights four highly pertinent topics that will shape the focus of the event, spark discussion, and inspire new ideas.

View Program

TIME	SESSION
0800	Exhibition open
0830	Opening session The national and international space landscape
1000	Morning tea
1030	Defence Space Update: Securing Australia’s Use of Space in a Changing World. The world is critically reliant on space-enabled technologies for its prosperity and security, however, risks to the ongoing use of space are escalating as it becomes increasingly congested, contested, and competitive. Defence is implementing an ambitious multi-billion-dollar space capability acquisition program and is transforming as an organisation to better utilise space. As they continue to build and strengthen Australia’s many international partnerships, including sourcing and operating high technology space systems in collaboration with these partners, Defence also works closely across Government, particularly with the Australian Space Agency, on priorities to develop industry and grow Australian sovereign space capability, enabling greater innovation and resilience for the future. This session will update and explore Defence’s approach to assuring Australia’s access to space in a fast-changing world.
1200	Lunch
1330	Space Traffic Coordination and Management: The Next Step in Space Situational Awareness Significant efforts and investments are being poured into building space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities, which are aimed at generating comprehensive and continuous understanding of the space environment and the objects therein. Although work is still ongoing, it is nevertheless useful to ask at this juncture, “what next after SSA?” Arguably a major application of SSA is space traffic coordination and management, which are global tasks that require international cooperation on multiple fronts, not least in technological innovation, policy and framework development, stimulation of industry and consensus building. This panel aims to discuss the progress, challenges and outlook on space traffic coordination and management from the perspectives of international experts on these areas. The role of individual nations, such as Australia which is a relatively new player in the space sector, in this global mission will also be a talking point.
1500	Afternoon tea
1530	Life Science Research Enabling Long-term Space Habitation: Long-term off-Earth habitation is on the horizon. By 2025, humans will have established the new Lunar Gateway Space Station as a necessary precursor to crewed Mars missions, however, critical technologies to enable remote habitation, where re-supply of resources from Earth is not a viable option, lag in their development. Unlike water, oxygen and fuel, food is not available for harvest on the Moon or Mars. Providing a nutritious, varied food supply to sustain physical and mental wellbeing for long-term Space habitation is one of the greatest obstacles for mission planners, as the current mass and volume of required food prohibit overall mission feasibility. Beyond food supply, clinical strategies are needed to ensure humans remain healthy and perform optimally off-Earth. The changeable, and not entirely predictable, conditions on long-term Space missions will also require robust, reconfigurable, on-demand generation of resources such as pharmaceuticals and construction materials. The technological ‘grand challenges’ of sustainable extra-terrestrial life support are inherently complex, highly interconnected, and yet to be tackled holistically. This panel will explore the life science, psychology and clinical research translation into practice that is needed to support life off-world in the long-term.
1700	Networking event

Register

This iconic event is not to be missed and represents one of the foremost events on the national space industry calendar.

Space Passport Program

A highlight of the Australian Space Forum is the educational outreach the event provides to students through the Space Passport program, enabling the opportunity for students to learn about space career pathways through direct engagement with Australia’s space leaders.

More information and registration dates for this program will be announced in early 2022.

Exhibition & Sponsorship

The Australian Space Forum series continues to grow through the ongoing support of our sponsors and exhibitors and we thank them for their contribution to the space industry in Australia and around the world..

The 13th Australian Space Forum is proudly supported by the below sponsors and exhibitors who are committed to a thriving space sector. If you would like to enquire on available sponsorship and exhibition packages, please contact spaceforum@andythomas.foundation

Special thanks to our Sponsors and Exhibitors

Associated Event

2022 Space & Geospatial Collaborative Workshop Adelaide

The Space & Geospatial Collaborative Workshop is being jointly hosted by the Andy Thomas Space Foundation and SSSI in Adelaide on Friday 4 March 2022, the day following the first 2022 Australian Space Forum.

Registration Now Open