Page 2538 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018
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nation’s public service and we have the infrastructure to guarantee that anchorage, even in zero gravity.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee) (3.45): I rise to speak in support of Ms Cheyne’s motion, which recognises Canberra as a space ecosystem, the ideal home of Australia’s Space Agency. This motion recognises the incredible work happening in Australia’s space industry here in Canberra, and especially at Mount Stromlo in my electorate, which is recognised throughout the world.
The Oddie telescope at the mountain’s peak, which burnt down in the 2003 bushfires, was originally established at the top of Mount Stromlo in 1911 and was the first commonwealth building in the newly declared Australian Capital Territory. The observatory itself was founded by the commonwealth government as the Commonwealth Solar Observatory in 1924, long before the suburbs around Mount Stromlo were even gazetted. It is now the headquarters of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, a world-respected community of researchers exploring the heavens. I was very pleased to join the Chief Minister and you, Madam Assistant Speaker, at the ANU research school at Mount Stromlo last Friday to continue to build on the legacy of that history and heritage.
On Friday the ANU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Schmidt, and Professor Russell Joyce of the University of New South Wales Canberra came together to announce $250,000 in funding towards small and medium-size businesses in the ACT space sector, as well as launching the ACT government space prospectus, our pitch to the commonwealth as to why we are the logical permanent destination for the newly formed national Space Agency.
The funding will support our local businesses to have access to the advanced equipment available at the ANU’s Mount Stromlo Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre, which forms part of Canberra’s competitive edge as a leader in space technology research and development. The $30 million Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre, or AITC, at Mount Stromlo is a world-class facility for the assembly, integration and testing of space-based instruments and small satellites. According to the ANU, it includes the only space simulation facility in the southern hemisphere, known as the Wombat XL, which mimics the airlessness of space as well as the dramatic temperature changes experienced by satellites moving in and out of the earth’s shadow.
The ANU works in collaboration with many companies in Australia and abroad, and we would like to see this expand with our support. The AITC is involved in a range of diverse areas: developing parts for the giant Magellan telescope in Chile, which will provide an aperture ten times greater than the satellite telescope Hubble from the earth’s surface, thus providing a better picture of space than ever before.
One of the incredible collaborations at work in Canberra is the Space Environment Research Centre located at Mount Stromlo, a multinational research collaboration effort that is developing commercialising technologies to reduce the threat of space-based infrastructure from space debris. The Space Environment Research
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