This is due in part to growing threats from countries such as North Korea and, as Takada put it, \u201cspace\u2019s increasing importance in national security policy.\u201d Defense-wise, Takada said Japan had largely focused on the resiliency of its space systems in the past. Now it\u2019s taking a three-pronged approach: building resilient systems, but also taking measures to prevent incidents from happening in the first place, and emphasizing countermeasures in the event of an attack. All of these are \u201cindispensible for mission assurance,\u201d Takada said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Although Research and Development (R&D) currently eats up the majority of Japan\u2019s space budget, Takada expects the amount of funds allocated toward space security to increase over time. He said that Japan plans to strengthen national security by using optical and radar observation to improve Space Situational Awareness (SSA), and by expanding cooperation with allied countries such as France and the United States.<\/p>\n On the civil side, Japan\u2019s biggest short-term project is the completion of its Quazi-Zenth Satellite System (QZSS). The first satellite, Michibiki, launched back in 2010, and Japan plans to deploy the remainder of the seven satellites by 2023. As a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), QZSS is designed to provide communications and also complement existing Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites by increasing accuracy down to the centimeter. The constellation will fly in an elliptical Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) to ensure at least one satellite hovers over Japan at all times.<\/p>\n Not unlike Japan, Canada\u2019s industry was largely built around its mandate for the peaceful use of space, said Canadian Space Agency<\/strong> (CSA) President Sylain Laporte. Any missions planned exclusively for national security are passed along to the military, which is part of the reason why the CSA is relatively small compared to other agencies such as NASA<\/strong>. Nonetheless, the CSA has been involved in a number of international space endeavors, including manufacturing instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n Because of the country\u2019s geography, much of Canada\u2019s space investments have gone toward Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and Earth Observation (EO) technology. \u201cWe use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to look at \u2026 these immense, vast agricultural fields. By feeding that back to the farmer he is able to optimize his yield,\u201d Laporte said. The panelists agreed that strength in these areas should continue, fueled particularly by start-ups entering Canada\u2019s maturing commercial space industry. \u201cI see very rapid growth in the smallsat environment. That\u2019s really good news for space agencies like mine where you try do as much as possible on a limited budget,\u201d said Laporte.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Laporte also highlighted Maritime Launch Systems\u2019 (MLS) efforts to construct a new launch pad in Nova Scotia as a testament to Canada\u2019s growing commercial prospects. \u201cThey have partnered with a company in the Ukraine looking at a medium capacity launch vehicle,\u201d Laporte said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking at reaching initial operating capability in the 2020-2021 time frame. It is entirely a commercial venture.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Osborne, president of MDA Information Systems<\/strong>, noted that the government of Canada has been very supportive of the commercial side of the industry and likely will continue to be. \u201cThe Canadian space industry is underpinned by strong relationships with the government. Whether you\u2019re large or small you\u2019ve used the CSA or government funding to be successful,\u201d he said. \u201cThe secret for being successful in our industry is leveraging what you can do with government funding into the export market or commercial sales.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Laporte, the idea of bringing new technologies to the international market runs throughout all of Canada\u2019s space activities, on both the government and the commercial side. He stressed that Canada will continue to rely on its friends across borders to advance space capabilities. \u201cThe rapid growth and exciting opportunities that we\u2019re seeing are being put into a context of international collaboration, and all of us are sharing our information to ensure we can leverage from one another. Humanity is going at this together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n To that end, Canada plans to contribute wherever it can to the international space community. Most recently, the government set aside funds for the CSA to begin preparing for the next Mars mission to modernize the satellites currently orbiting the planet.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Australian officials continue to debate the pros and cons of having a national space agency. Because there is no equivalent to NASA or CSA in Australia, research is typically done through the universities funded by the Australian Research Council, said Shaun Wilson, chief executive officer of Shoal Group<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This has led to a desire for governmental coordination across the industry, according to Russell Boyce, chair for space engineering at the University of New South Wales-Canberra<\/strong>. \u201cSuch an agency could be the vehicle to stimulate a mature Australian space sector,\u201d he said. Nova Group <\/strong>co-founder Peter Nikoloff agreed, noting that it\u2019s important to have an organization driving a national strategy for space. His vision is to have one central body governing everything from scientific research to national security to the growth of the commercial sector, each of which he said needs to be \u201cequally balanced.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Anna Moore, director of Australia National University\u2019s Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Center<\/strong> (AITC), said that despite the lack of a national agency, the Australian government hasn\u2019t necessarily shirked its responsibility to fund science projects. In fact, it recently invested $300 million into the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), a next-generation telescope that will be built across Australia and South Africa. Still, there are gaps she hopes a national body could potentially address, such as funding for small missions run by students. \u201cThere\u2019s no funding mechanism they can apply to that directly address space,\u201d she said \u2014 and to make matters worse, they must also compete with established companies in Australia\u2019s relatively large ground infrastructure sector. Moore said she hopes to see new funding sources in the next five to 10 years geared specifically toward young researchers.<\/p>\n Anthony Murfett, minister counselor of industry, science and education at the Australian Embassy in the United States, said that it\u2019s important for Australia to first establish its strategic priorities before running headlong into creating a national agency. \u201cI think what will really assist the government in determining its role and [how] we go forward is getting a good understanding of Australia\u2019s competitive advantage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to Wilson, Australia has thus far chosen explicitly to focus on ground infrastructure and data processing, with space segment services typically provided commercially. That should function as a good starting point for the industry\u2019s continued growth as NewSpace companies such as Sky and Space Global<\/strong> enter the arena. Overall, even without a national agency, the speakers seemed optimistic that commercial initiatives can help propel the Australian industry forward into the future, both in its niche of ground infrastructure and outside of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japan and Canada are making significant changes to how their national space agencies operate, while Australia is examining whether there is a need for national space agency at all. Speakers from each had time to dig deeper into their respective countries\u2019 space industry plans during the 33rd Space Symposium last week in Colorado Springs, Colorado. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Shuzo](\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/33728621571_9eeee243a7_k-200x300.jpg\")
Space in Canada<\/h2>\n
![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/space_station1.jpg\")
Space in Australia<\/h2>\n
![\"Rendition](\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/squarekilome-1024x461.jpg\")