APPENDIX 3

APPENDIX 3

Decadal Plan for Australian Space Science

The Australian Academy of Science's National Committee for Space Science is developing a decadal plan for Australian space science. A full version of the current draft is available at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~ncss/DraftPlan_Release.pdf.

The plan aims to demonstrate that important projects can be done at modest cost, a dollar per year for each Australian. The following summary was provided by the National Committee:

  1. A new Australian Coordination Committee for Space Science (ACCSS, pronounced “access”).

  2. New science goals and coordinating themes determined by and agreed to by the space science community.

  3. A ground-based state-of-the-art network (Spaceship Australis) to make Australasia and Antarctica the world’s best instrumented and modelled region for predicting the effects of Sun and space to Earth’s surface,

  4. A new program (ICFO – International Collaborations and Future Opportunities) to fund Australian participation in future international space efforts, including human exploration and space medicine.

  5. A major education, training, and outreach capability that can coordinate and leverage existing and new projects, both national and international.

  6. Two innovative and exciting spacecraft missions with multiple world-class capabilities (Lightning and Sundiver).

  7. A new National Institute for Space Science.

  8. Support for medium-sized collaborations that range from digital radars to image analysis laboratories to propulsion.[1]

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