Earth observation from space roadmap 2021–2030

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Earth observation data has a meaningful impact on our everyday lives, from responding to bushfires and natural disasters through to helping farmers manage their land.

The Australian Space Agency’s Earth Observation from Space Roadmap, is the second in a series of 7 roadmaps and outlines a 10-year plan to support growth of this priority area. This roadmap provides a map for industry to coordinate and build world-leading capabilities and technologies that support jobs and critical services into the future.

The Earth Observation from Space Roadmap provides a pathway to:

securing access to critical EO data
see complementary Australian EO capabilities making valued contributions to the global observing system
enable international collaboration with industry.

This will grow capability in designing and manufacturing space and ground based systems for reliable EO data to meet operational government, commercial and scientific needs.

Priority areas

Advancing Space: Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019-2028, identifies the 7 National Civil Space Priority Areas. Each roadmap aligns to one of these areas to:

describe a pathway to uplift capability
coordinate activities with industry, researchers and government agencies
encourage organisations to invest resources and efforts where they want to pursue the opportunities identified in the roadmaps.

Focus segments

The Earth Observation from Space Roadmap prioritises 5 focus segments. These are the areas of greatest opportunity for the Australian space sector. Focus segments highlight the potential to deliver advantage to Australia over the next decade:

Australian EO Missions and Payloads
Data Quality Assurance and Integrity Monitoring
Enhanced Data Management
International EO Partnerships and Leadership
Access to International Data and Missions.

These areas interplay to provide a pathway to uplift capability to help triple the size of the Australian space sector by 2030.

Watch our video explainer

Show transcript

Reece Biddiscombe – Director Earth Observation, Australian Space Agency

HEADING: What is EO, and why does it matter to Australia?

Earth observation (EO) encompasses a broad suite of activities, expertise and supporting technology that gathers observations and produces measurements of our Earth that allows us to examine and monitor our planet, its environments, climate, human activities, and the infrastructure we build.

Every time you look at the weather, you’re getting the benefit of 30 EO satellite data feeds, and Google Earth’s images of our planet are another really familiar form of EO. As the sixth largest country on Earth, Australia really relies on Earth observation to understand and manage our vast territory.

HEADING: What is the purpose of the Roadmap?

The Roadmap provides a strategic direction for the Earth observation industry. It does this by outlining the value of Earth observation, the vision and ambition for the sector, along with focus segments – such as Australian Earth observation missions and payloads, and access to international data and missions.

The targets for these and the other focus segments will contribute to the Australian Space Agency’s mission to create an additional 20,000 jobs by 2030, and triple the size of the national civil space sector to $12 billion.

HEADING: Who worked with the Agency on the Roadmap?

Collaboration was a primary focus for the roadmap, as Earth observation is a broad church. We worked closely with other Federal government agencies, universities, and peak industry organisations to ensure that this Roadmap reflects the needs of Earth Observation community, and is achievable for our industry. We also consulted with State and Territory agencies, and lastly, a number of international space agencies.