Australian Space Program

[Sarge82nd]

Does anyone think that it would be useful or possible for Australia to have a successful space program?

[SunJumper]

Ideally we would have to launch from the top of Cape York, to maximise the assistance from the Earth's rotation.

But I think I read something about plans to send a probe into the sun. Clearly it has not yet come to fruition.

[Kerbface]

I don't know, Australia isn't that big of a country demographically though I think our economy is fairly good right now. What would we do though? We have had an important role in space before though, we recieved the signal for the moon landing (See the movie "the dish" for a dramatised retelling of this event).

[Scotius]

It could provide Aussies with a way to escape from all those hellishly poisonous creatures roaming their country Sorry Australians, i hail from a country where we have exactly one species of poisonous snake, it's rare, not very dangerous and avoids humans. Whew.

[Leonov]

As long as Waltzing Matilda is their general purpose song of choice. Such as waking up thier astronauts.

I would put money into that.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Leonov

[Kerbface]

It could provide Aussies with a way to escape from all those hellishly poisonous creatures roaming their country Sorry Australians, i hail from a country where we have exactly one species of poisonous snake, it's rare, not very dangerous and avoids humans. Whew.

The dangerousness of living in Australia is vastly over exxagerated. If you live in a city or even a largeish town it's basically no different than the US. It's not like we invite taipans and scorpions into our homes or anything.

[bsalis]

Too expensive. Not useful. Won't happen.

Australia is better placed to provide ancillary support to other space programs. For example it is already part of the DSN. There is also Pine Gap. Also, plenty of land to test scramjets and such, like the Woomera Test Range.

[The Jedi Master]

No real purpose, at least for Australia. However, if they made some sort of international space program, the top of Cape York would be a good HQ.

[Canopus]

Remember that Australia is not that near the equator. That would make space launches from there a bit harder.

[ZedNova]

Australia? Yeah they could do it. Will they? I have no idea.

[Xander3838]

I really hope we start a start program. But I doubt it will happen.

[bsalis]

Remember that Australia is not that near the equator. That would make space launches from there a bit harder.

What?! Tip of Cape York is only 11 degrees south.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=-10.777999,142.488556

[LewisTherin]

Too expensive. Not useful. Won't happen.

I'll agree with you that it won't happen, but there's no technical reason that it shouldn't happen, as whether or not a country pursues a space program is entirely a matter of national priorities and public will. Let's take a few examples, based on the revenue and expenditure of various groups on their space agencies. I'll look at comparison relative to government revenue rather than GDP as I feel it gives a better view of what the country "can afford" based on their current approaches to taxation etc, note that the USA is a bit of an odd case to look at as their expenditure is over a trillion dollars more than their revenue, but let's just ignore that.

1) NASA (USA)

Budget: USD 17.8 bln (FY2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA

National Revenue: USD 2449 bln (FY2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Federal_Receipts_-_FY_2007.png

% of national revenue: 0.73%

2) Roscosmos (Russian Federation)

Budget: USD 5.6 (FY2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Federal_Space_Agency

National Revenue: USD 469 bln (FY2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia

% of national revenue: 1.19%

Note: this estimate will be slightly inflated due to Russia's year on year economic growth and the fact they're ramping up space spending.

3) ESA (Europe)

Budget: ~USD 4.9 bln (FY2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency

Combined Revenue ~USD 8000 bln (FY2012) (not all European nations contribute, this is the sum of the revenues of nations that contributed)

% of combined revenue ~0.06%

Something similar could be done for China, but there seems to be some dispute as to the actual expenditure figures. Nonetheless these give some ballpark figures that we can compare to Australia.

i) AU - Russian expenditure levels:

National Revenue: $US 376.1 bln (FY2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Australian_federal_budget

% of national revenue: 1.19%

Budget: ~USD 4.5 bln

ii) AU - US expenditure levels:

% of national revenue: 0.73%

Budget: ~USD 2.7 bln

iii) AU - European expenditure levels:

% of national revenue: 0.06%

Budget: ~USD 0.23 bln

To my mind we could afford to blow 5 billion a year on a space program (to be honest we could match NASA funding in dollar terms if we wanted to) but there is neither will in the public mind, nor in the minds of our politicians. On the other end of the spectrum, if wanted to make a token effort like the Europeans, then I agree a measly 200 million a year would be a waste better spent on something else.

Also:

Remember that Australia is not that near the equator. That would make space launches from there a bit harder.

Pretty sure that Equator line is closer to the top of Australia than it is to Florida, let alone Kazakhstan.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/images-mow/world-map.jpg