AUSTRALIA TO GO TO THE MOON

AND BUILD A BASE THERE.

Australia’s new space agency has only been in business since July 2018, and already the CSIRO has drawn up plans for the fledgling organisation to conquer the Moon. Starting with the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway — to be built in the 2020s — the plan is to launch lunar shuttles and subsequently send human missions to Mars. Not only is the CSIRO interested in the space tourism business, but also wants Australia to grab any opportunity for “asteroid mining”, “deep space missions” and “living off-world in closed-loop systems”.