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A long-anticipated roadmap that sets out a vision for the growth of Australia’s spatial and space sectors, was released on 14 February 2023.

The result of months of hard work by experts within the sectors, the 2030 Space+Spatial Industry Growth Roadmap outlines the challenges and opportunities inherent in Australia’s current and future space and spatial ecosystem.

The modern spatial and space sectors are inextricably intertwined, each supporting the other — from satellite communications to Earth observation (EO), from positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services to GNSS.

Australia’s national space aim, in an economic sense, is to growth the civil space industry from a $3.8 billion sector in 2016 to $10–12 billion by 2030. This requires a compound annual growth rate in excess of 8.5% per annum. Currently it is about 5%. “To build Australia’s underpinning space and geospatial capability and meet the growth goals, Australia needs to shift into a higher gear,” the roadmap’s authors say.

The roadmap also provides forecasts for success based on three different growth models — matching Australia’s GDP, matching international growth, or transformational growth to reach the 8.5% goal — plus the actions needed to achieve each of them. Australia lags far behind other countries, even smaller ones, when it comes to space industry investment. And much of the nation’s space industry spending still goes overseas.

The roadmap’s conclusions are based upon eight key findings and observations:

• Space and geospatial technologies are essential for addressing critical national challenges, including climate change.
• Consensus is needed for investment. Australia has at least 25 space and geospatial strategies and plans — a clearer statement of priorities is required.
• Sovereign risk must be reduced. Australia relies too heavily on space assets and geospatial information products and services controlled by other countries.
• Government support is needed. “At present, Australian space and geospatial capability largely reside in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which will need to attain critical mass to be able to successfully bid for larger contracts,” the authors say.
• Australia must get involved at an international level to accrue the benefits of ongoing EO, PNT, GNSS and communications developments.
• Australia needs to strengthen the resilience of its critical space and geospatial assets, as space assets and space access are coming under increasing threat from malign actors.
• The cost of access to space is rapidly reducing and the sector is growing quickly, but Australia risks being left behind in terms of capability (satellite manufacturing, launch systems, control and data reception).
• Setting ambitious industry development goals via National Space Missions generally pays off, based on the experience of other countries. Australia is starting down this path with, for instance, the National Space Mission for Earth Observation.

With those observations as a base, the roadmap’s authors have proposed nine national objectives to “optimise industry potential”:

1. Establish a Blueprint with ongoing National Space Missions. This should lay out the critical capabilities and actions needed to build capability and address sovereign needs.
2. Drive industry growth by developing a robust ecosystem of local space and geospatial companies.
3. Improve coordination of publicly funded research for the space and geospatial sectors.
4. Increase workforce capabilities via increased investment in career promotion, suitable education and training pathways and improved skilled migration schemes.
5. Build sovereign capability in spatial digital twins as a critical national capability and an economic growth opportunity.
6. Upgrade PNT capabilities and technologies to meet national needs and position the nation to capture a bigger slice of global economic growth in PNT.
7. Reduce sovereign risks to the supply of Australia’s critical space and geospatial infrastructure.
8. Support the local space and geospatial sectors to meet more of the needs of the Department of Defence.
9. Maintain and enhance Australia’s national map base to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the geospatial reference system and the critical data that it supports.

The roadmap’s authors conclude by saying that “Australia has a golden opportunity to establish new and deeper relationships with our emerging sovereign space industry as well as with established players in the geospatial industry”.

“If Australia collectively seizes this opportunity, it can accelerate the rate of growth of both industries and realise critical mass far more quickly. Building Australia’s space and geospatial capabilities is mission critical to the future of this nation.”