Blasting beyond the ‘final frontier’

DAVID Flanagan has never been to Space Camp.

The Atlas Iron founder, 2014 Western Australian of the Year, Eisenhower Fellowship recipient, Member of the Order of Australia, Delta Lithium chair and 2009 40under40 First Amongst Equals has achieved many things. But he has never been to Space Camp.

“I’ve always thought space was kind of cool, but I never did anything about it,” Mr Flanagan, the non-executive chair of the Australian Remote Operations in Space and on Earth (AROSE), told Business News.

“I learned enough about the solar system to pass geology, because we studied the solar system and planetary science at the WA School of Mines.

“But I’m not one of those people. I’ve never gone to Space Camp.”

A geologist by trade who turned Atlas from a gold explorer into a company that helped break BHP and Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore stranglehold during the boom of the mid 2000s, Mr Flanagan’s interest in rocks has historically centred on those found on Earth.

On the surface, therefore, space may not be the logical place for such an accomplished resources sector figure’s next journey.

Mr Flanagan admitted he had his doubts when approached by Derwent partner and executive recruiter Julie Colvin to join AROSE when it was founded in 2020. Initially he turned the role down.

“I didn’t feel qualified enough,” Mr Flanagan said.

“I felt like it was too big a responsibility to be the custodian for an organisation that planned to have a crack at Australia’s first lunar mission. I kept thinking ‘what if we get it wrong?’”

A meeting with someone who probably did go to Space Camp changed all that.

AROSE – created to leverage the existing remote operations expertise in the Australian resources sector in space – was the brainchild of former astronaut and now NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy, and Woodside’s head of intelligent and autonomous systems Russell Potapinski.

The Perth-based organisation is now an industry-led consortium of high-profile companies with a vision to make Australia a trusted leader in remote operations science on this planet and beyond.

Back in 2020, however, it took a conversation with Ms Melroy to frame the AROSE opportunity in a way that resonated with Mr Flanagan.

“Pam explained to me how the space sector is kind of the art of the impossible,” Mr Flanagan said.

“On the path to achieving the impossible, through exploration, you make remarkable discoveries.

“There are some analogies here for metals and mining. When I was at Atlas we listed as a gold company and went looking for gold. We found iron ore. Alexander Fleming wasn’t looking for penicillin when he discovered it.

“Space exploration delivered us high-powered computing as a spin-off. It delivered us renewable energy as a spin-off. Silicon, all sorts of amazing alloys, LED lighting. The list goes on and on.”

This conversation, combined with realisation around the economic opportunity of space, led Mr Flanagan to take on the role. He is now a representative for an organisation connecting the red dirt of the Pilbara with the icy regolith of the Moon, and beyond.

In March, a consortium of AROSE members Fugro and Nova Systems, supported by Woodside and Rio Tinto, was awarded a $4 million stage one grant under the Trailblazer program to design an Australia-built remote-operated lunar rover to collect soil for NASA on its planned return to the Moon.

That’s part of a bigger mission to get mankind from the Moon to Mars.

Mr Flanagan said WA’s resources sector, in particular its expertise in remote operations, had a critical role to play in delivering the Mars goal.

“When you’re in space and something goes wrong, you can’t send out a fitter,” he said.

“We can run a truck or a ship in the Pilbara from Perth, but it’s only one thing to be able to do it.

“When you’ve been doing it for 30, 40, 50 years like we have, well, you break stuff. You figure out what goes wrong. Over 40 years of running remote loggers underground through to running remote dump trucks, you build operational resilience.

“We absolutely have a technology offering for the space sector.”

Resources would stand to benefit, too. Mr Flanagan said space famously attracted the brightest minds, working on the world’s biggest problems.

“All of this feels to me like this wonderful mess of ideas that, if focused, could achieve amazing things,” he said.

Priority

Premier Roger Cook is another who wears multiple hats, including that of state and industry development minister.

Even before his rise to the top job, Mr Cook was the minister who oversaw the release of the Future State: Accelerating Diversify WA report in April.

The report highlighted eight opportunities for WA to diversify its one-track economy over the coming decade and beyond. Space, and specifically the opportunity to tap cross-sector technology opportunities, was among them.

AROSE’s work was highlighted in the study, with modelling by PwC estimating that the opportunities derived through the organisation would add $196 million to the state’s economy per annum and create 1,540 jobs in five years’ time.

The state has a history of space involvement spanning six decades, owing to its combination of geography, size and climate, which give it clear skies and radio quiet zones. Without government support, those natural benefits count for little, according to Curtin University Space Science & Technology Centre director Phil Bland.

Professor Bland and his team oversaw the development of Binar-1, which in 2021 became the first WA-built spacecraft to launch into space.

“When people talk about space in WA they usually point to our geographic location, or the space we have in terms of land area, or that we’re magnetically quiet in areas of the outback,” Professor Bland told Business News.

“All of that is true but I think principally for me, and I know for other partners as well, having a government that listens is critical.

“It’s great to be in a place where I don’t have to argue for the value of basic research. Government understands that, and it’s really refreshing.”

The Binar program has tangible benefit for a range of industries, offering more affordable access to space than ever previously achieved in WA.

The team is in the process of developing Binar-2, 3 and 4, which it plans to launch in a constellation arrangement to bridge the limitations of operating in low-earth orbit without excessive costs.

“The kind of thing we’re testing out is affordable spacecraft that can be used for a whole bunch of different things. Whether it’s bushfires or weather or agriculture, or you name it,” Professor Bland said.

“We have the ability to use either single spacecraft or constellations for use in any of those different cases.”

To be launched via a company working with the Japanese Space Agency, Binar-2, 3 and 4 will host a prototype space communication system developed by WA company AVI.

“Hopefully through this technology we’ll be able to enable local organisations to get into space,” Professor Bland said.

“We also have a program working with high schools to get their experiments into space.”

Space exploration, and the by-product societal benefits of bringing together the nation’s brightest minds in engineering and science, were identified as the next frontier of WA’s evolving space story.

“Bringing those minds together is kind of like the Olympics of space exploration; an awful lot of value comes from that,” Professor Bland said.

“I think there’s a real niche for us as a state in that. We haven’t really embraced the science and exploration component of space just yet, but I think we can.”

Once doubtful of his role in developing an Australian space industry, Mr Flanagan agreed.

Space Camp or not, he now believes anything is possible, and has runs on the board to back that view.

“If I go back to my first day at the WA School of Mines, [industry stalwart] Max Wearne told me that, statistically, I would probably never be involved in developing an economically viable deposit,” he said.