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NASA will need established technologies like autonomous mining trucks used in the Western Australian desert, and remote healthcare technology used in Antarctica, to make its 2024 Moon mission possible, stakeholders say.
Space Industry Association of Australia chairman Rod Drury said automated technology machinery at work in WA's Pilbara region — managed from 1,600 kilometres away in Perth — would be among key technologies needed in the United States' planned mission to the Moon.
"Clearly one of the technologies that's at the forefront is anything to do with remote operations, particularly our proven world-class ability in remote operations associated with mining," he said.
"And if you were to look into our history of supporting remote medical activities, not only through the Royal Flying Doctor Service, but also remotely in the South Pole, you'll find that Australia has been playing a heavy role."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on the weekend that Australia would contribute $150 million to the United States' mission — money that would be invested, via the fledgling Australian Space Agency in Australian businesses and researchers to support NASA.
But with just five years to prepare for the first human Moon landing since 1972, Mr Drury expected companies with medium to high "technology readiness levels" would be of most interest to the space agency.
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science on Tuesday released a "Joint Statement of Strategic Intent and Cooperation" with several mining, satellite, aerospace and communication companies — and even a high-level defence products company — among those it expected to take part in the project.
It said Australia's robotics technology, particularly in repair and construction work, could also spark NASA's interest, along with remote medical applications of the type undertaken by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) to deliver health support in remote and hostile environments.
Autonomous haulage in space
The number of driverless haulage trucks, trains and automated machinery in WA's Pilbara region has increased significantly over the past five years — much of which is run from Perth, up to 1,600 kilometres away.
Professor Stefan Williams, from the University of Sydney's School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, said the technology could be readily applied to a lunar mission, where it was hoped ice mining could take place.
"So they'll need to use terrain information, surface topography and things like that, for the robots to understand where they are.
"I could certainly see us making a contribution to the navigation and mapping work that will be required."
Professor Williams said the machinery would be ground-based vehicles because there was next-to-no atmosphere on the Moon to fly drones, which have a "limited payload" anyway.
"There will be challenges around maintaining line of sight, and either you need to have some infrastructure, like satellites to relay communications, or the vehicles will have to operate fairly autonomously," he said.
"Another possibility is you communicate back to Earth, but that's still going to require some level of autonomy.
"If you look at what happened with Mars [Exploration Rover missions], there's about a 20-minute delay, so the robots are essentially undertaking planned actions that are planned pretty meticulously here on Earth."
But he added the likelihood of there being large mining trucks roaming the Moon in the near future was very unlikely thanks to their size and weight.
"I suspect one of the big challenges will be transporting platforms that are of sufficient size to undertake these long-range missions and to collect enough volumes of material to be viable," Professor Williams said.
"What they drive out there in the Pilbara are pretty massive."
The Pilbara is already home to a NASA camp where scientists are studying rock samples to better understand Earth's evolution ahead of a mission to Mars.
US President Donald Trump has said the Moon mission was ultimately a launching pad to a human expedition to Mars.
The Moon has long been touted as a jumping-off point for bigger missions due to the possibility of mining its ice for water — an essential but heavy substance that subsequently requires a lot of energy to lift from Earth's surface.
Antarctica methodology in space
AAD chief medical officer Jeff Ayton said the Government division had been collaborating with NASA on human biology medical research and remote medical support since 1993.
He said Antarctica was considered a "validated space analogue" because it posed similar risks to human habitation in terms of cold, perilous conditions and there was a reliance on technology to survive.
Dr Ayton said that, like astronauts, those working in Antarctica throughout winter faced isolation and confinement issues, which could contribute to suppressed immunity levels.
Health support included generalist medical training, advanced "telehealth [telecommunications techniques to provide health care], advanced point-of-care diagnostics, sensors and human monitoring".
He said a person who ran into trouble during a moon mission would likely be monitored remotely via advanced sensors by a medically trained person on the lunar gateway (a spaceship in orbit) who would provide support.
"They'd be supported telemedically back at an operational centre, whether that be in Houston [US], Australia or wherever," Dr Ayton said.
He said the challenges of delivering health care in space included not only isolation but micro-gravity, radiation and the difficulty in doing the simplest procedures.
"There's the opportunity to take health care to the next level of augmented reality and virtual reality and autonomous systems, but everyone talks about robotic surgery," Dr Ayton said.
But he did not expect to see robotics deployed for surgery requirements any time soon.
"Even that on Earth is an extreme challenge and to do that in space is a long way off."
He said one area that was advancing quickly was screening of astronauts to spot potential health issues and avoid a potentially complicated situation from the start.
"This is a key mitigator we learnt from the Douglas Mawson expeditions [1911 to 1914] right through to the Australian Antarctic program," Dr Ayton said.
"Some things we just cannot deal with in the isolation of a nine-month winter, even with the best of technology."
Research and Development up for grabs
Mr Drury said the Australian Space Agency was likely to have a preference for proven technologies — a position that seems to be supported by the Government in its "Statement of Strategic Intent" to collaborate with established companies
But he said emerging research and development could still find support if risk assessments stacked up.
"Australia has a significant pedigree of deep research in a whole variety of areas, starting off with geology, astronomy, astrophysics," Mr Drury said.
"There's a whole plethora of areas upon which Australia has good research and development capabilities and I'm sure the US will be looking to leverage those."