Victoria’s space industry hosts Head of Agency

Earlier this week, Head of the Australian Space Agency Enrico Palermo visited key representatives from the national space sector in Melbourne. 

On his two-day tour, Mr. Palermo met up with some Victorian state-based grant recipients, who have been awarded Agency support from various funding programs like the Moon to Mars initiative's Demonstrator Mission Grants program and the International Space Investment initiative.

Mr. Palermo's trip included visits to:

Conflux Technology

Recipient of a Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability grant

• They are using a unique approach to create a heat exchanger that will sit inside the gas duct of a rocket engine.

Enable Aerospace

Recipient of a Moon to Mars Demonstrator Mission grant

• The company provides an end-to-end capability in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) design, manufacture, integration, certification, flight test and operational support.

University of Melbourne

Recipient of both an International Space Investment and Moon to Mars Demonstrator Mission grant

• The University led a consortium that developed a groundbreaking Australian-made Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) nanosatellite, which was launched into orbit last year.

Lunaria One 

Recipient of a Moon to Mars Demonstrator Mission grant

• They are designing, building and testing two Australian lunar experiment promoting horticulture (ALEPH) projects.

RMIT University

Recipient of a Moon to Mars Demonstrator Mission grant

• They are developing MAPrad — a miniature device that scans deep below ground is being developed to identify ice deposits and hollow lava tubes on the Moon for possible human settlement. 

Monash University

• The University’s National Indigenous Space Academy (NISA) is an initiative supported by the Agency. Last month, five students commenced their 10-week internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

NextAero

Recipient of a Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability grant

• Their Agency-funded project aims to meet the needs of national and international space customers who require capability in advanced fuels, such as liquid hydrogen and methane.