Down under startups are joining the new space race with an Australian moon rover and a Kiwi spaceplane

An Australian rover on the moon in search of oxygen that could help support human habitats, and a reusable New Zealand spaceplane powered by green fuel — trans-Tasman startups are joining the modern space race with big ideas to help the world’s clean energy transition.

The space startup scenes in both Australia and New Zealand are small but maturing quickly, aided by the establishment of national space agencies in each country in recent years (New Zealand in 2016 and Australia in 2018). 

By putting sustainability at the core of everything they do, and leveraging the knowledge that comes with operating in remote and resource-rich countries, the two nations' off-planet ambitions are fast gaining the world’s attention and investment dollars.

"You have to be global, you need to solve a global problem and you need to specialise," said Flavia Tata Nardini, the co-founder of Fleet Space Technologies in Adelaide.

"When you do that, even the most incredible Silicon Valley investors will know that you are the best," Tata Nardini said.

Fleet, which was founded in 2015 by Tata Nardini (pictured below) and Matthew Pearson, develops low-cost shoebox-sized nanosatellites to connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices, with the aim of making satellite data more accessible and affordable.

"Satellite data is always just used by a few, because it's very expensive. But we thought if we can build a very advanced small satellite for communication, then we could serve industries around the world and change the way data is transferred," Tata Nardini said.

"This is why we are in this game".

More recently the startup has seized on the global clean energy transition, developing satellites and software that can scan the globe from 500km above, in search of critical minerals 500m below Earth’s surface.

"We really fell in love with the critical minerals boom. To go through the clean energy transition we will need 40 times more lithium, copper, cobalt and nickel to help [make] things like electric cars and solar panels," Tata Nardini said.

"When I'm raising money around the world, investors are not surprised that a space company in Adelaide is solving the biggest problem in critical minerals, because resources are what Australia is good at."

Fleet doesn’t want to stop at making nanosatellites for the Internet of Things era. Tata Nardini hopes her startup's technology will be used to help find minerals on the moon and other planets in the future.

"Humankind are great explorers, but sometimes we exploit," she said.

"The goal with deploying our ExoSphere technology over Earth was to give to humanity a tool that allows Earth not to be drilled crazily over the coming 30 to 40 years.

"We thought if we can use the same technology to go to the moon and Mars, it can also search other planets [for minerals] without drilling."

Enrico Palermo, the head of the Australian Space Agency and former COO at Virgin Galactic, told LinkedIn News Australia the success of the nation’s mining industry gives Australia an advantage over many other emerging space nations.

"Space is already spinning back benefits to these industries on Earth and it goes both ways. Our primary resources sector relies on space technologies today. For example, to operate those mine sites and platforms autonomously, you need things like GPS," Palermo said.

"They [miners] rely on earth observation data to assess the land, but we're now seeing them harness new technologies from space, whether it's quantum sensing or some other IoT-based sensing, which really enhanced their ability to prospect for minerals."

The recent courtship of the two sectors is demonstrated by the formation in 2020 of the Australian Remote Operation - Remote-Operations in Space and on Earth (AROSE) consortium, an industry-led not-for-profit based in Perth made up of members from mining, space and technology companies, including miners like Rio Tinto and Woodside Energy

AROSE aims to take Australia’s expertise in remote operations in the resource sector and apply it to space and terrestrial operations for economic benefits of all industries.

Together the two industries can do more than help to improve life on Earth — they can also help unlock space, given technology like remote operations and autonomy will be critical in future space missions that involve long distances or extended periods of time in space.

"As you look outbound it forces you to innovate in the harshest environments. In Australia, we lead the world in terms of operating things like large vehicles, such as haulers, trucks and drillers, autonomously from a distance in a harsh environment," Palermo said.

In 2021, the Australian Government announced an agreement with NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration for a small autonomous 'foundation services rover', weighing 20kg or less, to be included in a future moon mission as early as 2026.

The rover, to be deployed by NASA’s lunar lander, will collect lunar soil and deliver it to NASA equipment, which will then attempt to extract oxygen from it — a key step towards establishing a sustainable human presence on the moon and supporting future missions to Mars.

Seven Sisters Mission, a consortium of South Australian companies led by Fleet, is competing with AROSE for government funding to help build the rover. No decisions have been announced yet.

Tata Nardini said opportunities to work with NASA and other international companies and agencies on such significant projects for humanity demonstrates the faith the global space industry has in Australian researchers and startups.

"With the NASA mission and relationships with other countries, companies like Fleet get to partner with companies all around the world that it otherwise wouldn’t have, and that's what makes it special," she said.

The Australian Government wants to triple the industry's size to $12 billion and create 20,000 extra jobs by 2030. Tata Nardini said she believes tapping into global collaborative projects is critical to helping achieve this.

"Australia needs more success stories, we need more [billion-dollar valued] unicorns in space. We need people. Space is hard, space is not easy, space is for the bravest. So we need the right people to make it happen," she said.

"I really hope Fleet will become a unicorn, to show to this ecosystem that these things can happen outside Silicon Valley."

Palermo (pictured below) said there are now about 600 space or space-related companies operating in Australia, and he believes there hasn't been this much local excitement in space exploration and technology since Australia supported the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969.

"Around the nation and across the full value chain of space activities — from downstream applications, analysing space data, building satellites, rockets that can launch things into space, supporting interplanetary missions such as our robots of the moon — we have seen a renaissance in space activity in the nation," he said.

"We have seen many billions of dollars signalled or committed by both government and the private sector to develop this, which is a big leading indicator of the growth we are going to see in Australia."

Fleet Space Technologies features on LinkedIn’s list of Australian Top Startups 2022. You can read more about the other Top Startups on the list here.

What excites you most about Australia’s space industry? Let us know in the comments.

A new dawn of space transportation

New Zealand spartup Dawn Aerospace is also on an exciting growth trajectory, supported by the New Zealand Space Agency and investors around the world.

Like Fleet, Dawn also has sustainability embedded in its ethos, with an aim to make space transportation efficient through green propulsion technology and long-term plans to develop a reusable suborbital spaceplane.

"Dawn is a sustainable space transportation company — our vision is to totally transform how space transportation works," said co-founder James Powell.

"Everything Dawn does aims to make that domain more accessible, and make these services, technologies and capabilities more prevalent and more affordable for people on Earth".

The company, which is based in Christchurch, the Netherlands and United States, makes nitrous-based thrusters to propel satellites, as an alternative to the highly-toxic chemical propellant hydrazine traditionally used in rocket fuel.

"The propellant is nitrous oxide, like laughing gas in hospitals, and propane, which basically every BBQ on the planet has. We use fuels that are commonly available and safe," Powell said.

"The piece that is proprietary for us is the technology  — it is how we build our engines and how the engines work.

"This means our ability to scale and provide this to thousands of customers is greater in comparison to more traditional fuels, which are highly toxic or have very complex export controls."

Dawn recently announced it has been contracted to produce more than 100 thrusters for clients across the US, Europe, Japan, India, and Indonesia. The company also holds contracts for a series of satellite constellations, including the Indonesian Space Agency’s early-tsunami warning constellation.

"We are well on track to be the most popular green chemical propulsion in-space by the end of next year."

Dawn is also working on a long-term research and development project to build a spaceplane that can take off and land at standard airports alongside regular aircraft.

Early iterations of the aircraft will capture atmospheric data for weather and climate modeling.

However, the end-goal is to create one large and powerful enough to carry a second stage which will deliver satellites into orbit. The first stage (the space plane) then lands back on Earth 15 minutes later to re-load.

"It is totally transformative in terms of how you fly to space because you can reuse it very rapidly, as you are reusing 96% of the hardware, so you massively reduce the cost," Powell said.

"You also use existing infrastructure, like airport runways, which there are already thousands of around the world (rather than purpose-built rocket launch pads). 

"This is globally deployable and scalable, and means being able to fly to space twice in a day."

While there is no shortage of space companies developing launch capabilities around the world, not many are developing suborbital spaceplanes that can take off and land at airports, so if the endeavor is successful, it could be lucrative for Dawn.

A benefit of being based in a remote place with a small population like New Zealand is that the startup has plenty of opportunity to fly and test spacecraft, as well as better access to government support, according to Powell.

"New Zealand has a unique geographical isolation, so it is relatively easy to have a wide range that you can launch to, because we were surrounded by so much ocean," he said.

"It also has a very small population and therefore a small government, meaning it's way more agile and easier to have a first-name basis relationships with the relevant ministers and people within the New Zealand Space Agency."

Despite valuations and stock prices for startups and tech companies plummeting in 2022, Powell said having a sustainable product that helps to solve a global problem makes it easier to attract investors, even from outside of the smaller Australia and New Zealand markets.

"If you've good technology and a good team then I really don't think you'll run out of money," he said.

"As long as your technology or your idea is sound, you can probably attract that investment from an overseas venture capital firm."

New Zealand's space industry is small — with a value of NZ$1.75 billion it represents only 0.27% of global space sector revenues, according to a Deloitte report in 2018-19. It employs about 12,000 people.

However, Powell said it's growing rapidly, and as it continues to expand in the coming years it will provide high value to the country’s economy.

"I found out recently that aerospace is already a bigger industry in New Zealand than wine. That's incredible," he said.

"It is certainly growing a lot. Startup and entrepreneurship in general has matured a huge amount in the last decade in New Zealand. The trend is pretty strong for this [aerospace] becoming a really significant part of New Zealand industry."

The United States was the first country to land on the moon, and the Soviet Union was the first to put a person in space. What will New Zealand and Australia be known for in the new space race?

Dawn Aerospace features on LinkedIn’s list of New Zealand Top Startups 2022. You can read more about the other Top Startups on the list here.

Reporting by Marty McCarthy, Technology and Innovation Reporter for LinkedIn News Australia.

Images by: Fleet Space Technologies & Matt Turner, Getty, Australian Space Agency, Seven Sisters & Hassell Studios, Dawn Aerospace