As part of the Southern Guardian Partnership, HENSOLDT and the University of Tasmania recently participated in the Defence-sponsored SpaceFest which is an international activity in which participants demonstrate their capability to detect, track and catalogue objects orbiting Earth, to understand, predict and prevent adverse events. SpaceFest is part of a joint civil-military, international space traffic management exercise consisting of real and simulated events in which companies collaborate and compete to solve problems.
SpaceFest saw staff ‘chasing’ satellites identified by a central management cell, mapping and predicting their orbits and sharing information back into the central team. Information was visible on large screens in the universities interim operations room, after being processed through our unique Space Battle Management System. The event was hosted by HENSOLDT Australia Deputy CEO Scott Reeman and Professor Simon Ellingsen, Dean of School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania.
Reeman said, “SpaceFest is a fantastic opportunity for HENSOLDT and the University to showcase our unique nationwide sovereign SDA capabilities. The Southern Guardian Team is expertly playing a leading role in the development of this Australian national capability.”
Ellingsen said the global training exercise was an opportunity to collaborate with and learn from other universities, government organisations and private companies around the world. “This exercise is all about building our collective capacity in space domain awareness. We will be demonstrating the capabilities of the five radio telescopes we manage across Australia, which operate at a higher frequency than most and are able to retrieve very accurate information.”
This activity will assist the Australian Defence Force’s new Space Command to understand our ability to support the collection of data, search for objects and identify threats to Australia’s space-based capability. HENSOLDT and the University of Tasmania formed the Southern Guardian Partnership last year. The Partnership combines the capabilities of HENSOLDT, a leading provider of platform-independent technology solutions in the space sector with those of the University, who own and have sovereign control over the largest continental networked array of sensors in Australia.
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