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AUSTRALIA
Australia has been involved in space and atmospheric research
activities since the 1940s. A major restructuring of the
Australian space programme in August 1996 called for the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
(CSIRO) to play a lead role in carrying forward space projects
on a new collaborative basis in conjunction with other agencies,
universities and the private sector.
Australia's space efforts are quite comprehensive and emphasizes
science and technology as well as the applications of space.
It operates two ground receiving stations at Alice Springs
and Hobart for the acquisition of Landsat, SPOT, ERS, JERS
and Radarsat data. It plans to develop a local capability
for satellite launching, which could be offered to other
countries on a commercial basis. Australia has a robust
telecommunications industry. The country has also the highest
telephone density in the region at 52 per cent.
The Federation Satellite (FedSat) project, initiated in
1996, is carried out by the Cooperative Research Centre
for Satellite Systems (CRCSS), an unincorporated joint venture
between government research agencies, universities and private
companies. FedSat will be a microsatellite for conducting
experiments in space science, computing, navigation and
communications, and is expected to be launched in the coming
year. Australia is also studying a hyperspectral remote
sensing project called ARIES, the Australian Resource Information
and Environment Satellite.
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