An MoU between HENSOLDT Australia and the Tasmanian government, represented by the Department of State Growth (DSG), and the University of Tasmania, will see the TEAM Tasmania initiative established to take the next step in building-up Tasmania as the centre for Space Domain Awareness in Australia.
Technology solutions company, HENSOLDT Australia’s Hobart office will be the centre for the Southern Guardian systems integration and data analysis, which will further fuel innovation and opportunities for both Defence and commercial space operations.
The new office signifies HENSOLDT’s investment in developing a sovereign Australian Space Domain Awareness capability, together with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and the announcement of funding for a PhD scholar at the University of Tasmania.
According to Scott Reeman, VP Tasmania and GM strategy ANZ at HENSOLDT, Tasmania has first-class capability for sovereign projects.
“We are excited to be opening our Hobart office to work closely with TEAM Tasmania on Australia’s sovereign Space Domain Awareness capability and other local partners to realise opportunities in the Space, Maritime, Defence and Clean Energy domains together,” he said.
TEAM Tasmania is designed to create the Southern Guardian Space Domain Awareness System (Southern Guardian) to develop a sovereign competitive advantage for the state and the nation.
“Tasmania’s southern location makes it ideally positioned to observe and track space objects, like satellites and space debris, in polar orbits,” Reeman said.
“We have already commenced working with researchers at the University of Tasmania to refine approaches to object tracking and orbit projections and are very proud to fund a PhD candidate in this endeavour.”
The University of Tasmania manages an array of space infrastructure, capable of observing near-Earth orbiting objects, satellites and space debris and further afield objects including the tracking of distant space missions and asteroids.
HENSOLDT'S Hobart office was officially opened by Minister for Science & Technology Michael Ferguson, and the facility, Southern Guardian, is designed to capture and analyse this space observation data to track, categorise and identify objects and potential threats.
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