Australian company shoots for the Moon and Mars

Fleet Space says it is part of a consortium established by forming strategic partnerships with organisations that are leaders in their respective fields. This collective brings together highly specialised space industry competence while drawing from best-in-class academic expertise from the University of Adelaide, Australian Institute for Machine Learning, Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, Monash University, and University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

Fleet is looking to lead Australia’s rapidly growing space sector — an industry of key strategic importance to the development of the Australian economy. Indeed, the Australian Space Agency’s stated aim is to contribute $12 billion to the economy by 2030. This is underpinned by significant strategic support at a federal and state level.

The Seven Sisters initiative

The Seven Sisters is an initiative to discover abundant resources for humanity’s exploration of space through the implementation of world-leading surface exploration and construction technologies developed within Australia’s rapidly expanding Space sector.

The ultimate purpose is to enable humanity’s exploration of new worlds. The Seven Sisters initiative represents a truly global collaboration. NASA intends to fly the rover to the lunar surface provided it meets a range of conditions during this phase of the collaboration. It is expected to launch in 2026.

The Trailblazer grant

Fleet is seeking to draw upon this strategic support through the bidding process for the Trailblazer Programme, which will provide federal funding for the Moon to Mars initiative. Its purpose is to raise funding to leverage and diversify Australia’s world-leading remote operations skills and experience by developing new foundation services capabilities, encouraging investment and opportunities in the Australian space sector. Fleet is leading the consortium response and has engaged professional services firm PwC Australia to provide its financial and consulting capabilities.

This competitive grant opportunity provides up to $4 million in essential funding for the development of foundation services rover solutions through early mission phases to Preliminary Design Review (PDR). This benefits Australian industry in enhancing supply chain capability through the development of new sovereign technologies, enabling companies like Fleet to develop demonstrators that showcase Australian innovation on the global stage while supporting Australia’s involvement in the NASA mission to return to the Moon and launch the first missions to Mars.

“We are proud to be part of one of the world’s great centres of excellence for the development of leading space exploration technologies,” said Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and Co-Founder, Fleet Space Technologies. “Involvement in endeavours like the Seven Sisters Project and its bold mission to support NASA’s ground-breaking moon and Mars missions are vital to growing a sector of increasing strategic importance for our nation. Grants like the Trailblazer enable innovation and national collaboration and we are delighted to submit our bid to be part of a truly historic mission with benefits around the globe and at home in Australia.”

Fleet is one of Australia’s fastest growing technology exports. The company just completed a significantly oversubscribed funding round, securing investment domestically and from key funds in the United States. This has led to the development of the company’s first international HQ in Houston, Texas, a place in direct proximity to NASA, the world’s largest space agency.

Image: Preliminary rover design with visual courtesy of Hassell Studio.