
Australia Will Join U.S. for 2024 Moon Mission, Mars Exploration - adventured
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-21/australia-will-join-u-s-for-2024-moon-mission-mars-exploration
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ggm
The net effect will be to stifle Australian space innovation which competes
with NASA goals. It may be net beneficial to space science here but it won't
risk any competitive tension so little or no development outside of the
current NASA roadmap. The radio telescopes will be safe, the DSN needs them.
The hypersonic shockwave work would be fine. Digital comms work would be fine.
Microsats would be fine. Launches from OZ will be a big no.

It might buy half a seat in a future capsule once bigger fish have been
pacified. Best if the Australian astronauts are already training in the US and
ideally have dual nationality.

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TMWNN
>It might buy half a seat in a future capsule once bigger fish have been
pacified. Best if the Australian astronauts are already training in the US and
ideally have dual nationality.

Ah yes, since Australians without US nationality have been flying into space
this whole time right? All three Australian-born people who've flown became US
citizens first. Meanwhile, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, and Israel have flown
people on US spacecraft.

>The net effect will be to stifle Australian space innovation which competes
with NASA goals.

 _What_ "Australian space innovation"?

>Launches from OZ will be a big no.

Ah yes, the Woomera field that has been used for manned launches for the past
40 years, right? No?

As misotaur said, Australia has nothing, absolutely nothing, to lose by
allying with NASA. It's possible, for example, that SpaceX could get approval
for using Woomera for launches, something ITAR currently prohibits.

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augustl
I find it interesting that I know everything about the SpaceX plans for Mars
(supplies mission in 2024, people in 2026), but I had no idea NASA has a
mission to the moon in 2024.

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friendlybus
NASA isn't allowed to advertise in the same way spacex can.

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chrisco255
NASA has social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, etc. Not sure what
they're missing other than Elon Musk's promoting skills.

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misotaur
Australia space agency`s budget is 10 million dollars,NASA has about 19
BILLION.I would also want this collaboration.

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patagurbon
10 million?! That’s pitiful even compared to Australia’s GDP peers. Why so
little?

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iciac
Currently, the focus of the organisation has been on developing Governance,
MOU's etc. $10M is basically seed to establish administration.

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simonblack
It took ten years to build up the 'Moon Shot' industry in the sixties. It
would take at least that long this time to rebuild all of those factories and
retrain the thousands of personnel to that level of expertise.

I am willing to state categorically that there will be no Moon Shot in 2024.

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peterkelly
Non-paywalled version: [http://archive.is/frI3q](http://archive.is/frI3q)

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robbiep
There’s no point even commenting on the sycophantic nature of our
(Australia’s) political leadership at the moment, so I’ll just leave it half
un-commented - But maybe this means I can be an astronaut?!

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pnako
Well, for once we're not following them to the middle east, so that's a plus.

I'm not entirely sure what the point of sending humans to the moon is, though.
It was cool to do it once, but now we can probably do something more useful
and productive with robots.

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credit_guy
> Well, for once we're not following them to the middle east, so that's a
> plus.

> I'm not entirely sure what the point of sending humans to the moon is,
> though.

Could these be related? Just one month ago this study [1] came out pointing to
the fact that in the future Australia may not be 100% sure it can rely on the
US for defense. In particular, any further Middle East- related strains on the
US war machine may result in a reduction of the US's capability and appetite
to wage war in the Pacific. Given that, Australia needs to plan for the
eventuality of building a missile force. The Moon and Mars things may just be
an excuse for that.

[1] [https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/averting-crisis-american-
st...](https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/averting-crisis-american-strategy-
military-spending-and-collective-defence-in-the-indo-pacific)

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friendlybus
I agree with your perspective. War that involves China means Australia needs
access to space. The only form of plausible high ground we can get.

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known
95 percent of the world's oceans and 99 percent of the ocean floor are
unexplored

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throwaway122kk
Whataboutism much? Why does everything nowadays have to be zero sum

