The space race started decades ago and yet it seems Australia has been lagging behind. Despite surging bandwidth prices, the nation down under is still struggling in the creation of any concrete space policy to give it a voice in the international space community.
Over the past five years, the demand for satellite bandwidth has increased, and prices have also firmed up especially since Australia has no firm space policy. The country has always been seen as supplicant to their allies, and in particular, to the United States own policy in space, letting them do the heavy lifting.
But the Government is hoping to change the nation’s image when it comes to the sky. There are already plans for the development of a Satellite Utilisation Policy, a new program that aims to correct the awkwardness between Australia and the space domain. Rather than focus resources on space activities, the new program aims look into space technology instead, allowing the country to participate in the development of new roads for space.
According to David Ball, CTO of NewSat, the plans should consider the increase competition in the space technology market, and look into how the country’s establish relations with the Middle East and Asia. Government personnels in some regions of conflict in the Arab states currently rely on satellite communications services from down under.
Ball also explained that aside from increased competition, it’s becoming more and more difficult to buy quality capacity. Satellite technology is crucial in a myriad of day to day services including GPS, timing signal for credit cards, as well as location services part of mobile applications. Australia’s role in space diplomacy has to be more tangible to resolve all these issues.
Supply for bandwidth demands have failed to keep up, pushing segment prices almost up to 100% in just five years. Industry experts say that Australia needs to have a singular focus at the international level. The only question which remains is if the government can still afford space legislations with a budget already strained from the global financial crunch, and domestic fears over the fading mining boom.
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