The Australian government is signaling its intent to become a player in the space business by announcing plans to set up a formal national space policy, steered by a small group to facilitate the fledgling venture.

At the same time, the country is also laying out a space sciences program, and has issued requests for proposals to industry, academia and other government agencies for basic science experiments to help kick-start the initiative into life. The plan is supported by a modest $A40 million ($37.07 million) in initial “seed” money, which the government will use to match investment from winning proposals on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

Although smaller than the A$100 million originally sought when talk of a national space policy last hit the headlines two years ago, most domestic players seem happy with the initiative. “This is the opportunity to show we can do something, and to come up with a number of projects fairly quickly,” says Russell Boyce, Defense Sciences Technology Office (DSTO) and University of Queensland hypersonics chairman. “It is also a recognition by the Australian government that we depend incredibly heavily on space and space technology.”

Boyce, who was talking to Aviation Week at the AIAA and DLR German research agency-organized spaceplanes and hypersonics conference here, is putting together a bid to flight test a supersonic combustion ramjet at Mach 8 with a focus on access to space, and will submit its proposal by the Dec. 4 deadline, he adds.

Winning teams expect to be on contract early in 2010. Boyce has been a leading light in Australia’s growing international role in hypersonic research, which has developed thanks mostly to its Woomera test range and high-speed laboratory facilities. Hypersonic research, mostly in collaboration with the U.S., is geared toward developing technology for defense applications, but could play a pivotal role in long-term international plans for space launcher concepts.

The space initiative, which was foreshadowed by budget announcements in Australia early in the year, emerges from recommendations in a recently completed defense white paper as well as several previous reviews of the past two years. These included a 2008 Senate inquiry into Australia’s space involvement, and a broader study of the nation’s innovation system, dubbed the Cutler Review. The calls were also reinforced by outline policy plans originally drafted as far back as 2007 by the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Space Science. This called for the development of a coordinated space policy as well as the formation of a space sciences coordination group.

The plan is aimed at developing a new generation of specialist space workers, as well as the Australian space industry itself, in areas such as manufacturing, electronics and software. The drive would support outlets as diverse as remote sensing, astrobiology, satellite technology, instrumentation and hypersonics. Although possessing no substantial indigenous space industry, the isolated, continent-sized country makes extensive use of space-based systems for commercial communications and national defense. Australia also ranks with Mexico as being one of the few of the world’s top gross-domestic-product nations not to have some form of space agency.

The initiative also comes as Germany’s DLR research agency is poised to become a technology player in the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experiment (HiFire) effort led by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and DSTO. A formal agreement enabling DLR involvement is “just about to be signed,” says AFRL HiFire Program Manager Douglas Dolvin.

HiFire’s first phase covers the launch of several rocket-boosted science payloads aimed at exploring technologies for a future generation of air-breathing long-range strike weapons as well as hypersonic reconnaissance and responsive strike vehicles. Despite the upcoming agreement, and posturing for involvement by Italy’s CIRA research agency, Dolvin says HiFire remains a strictly “U.S.-Australian” program. However, he adds that consideration may be given to expand its scope to include experiments from European nations as part of Phase 2. Originally timed for 2011-12, delays to the start of tests for Phase 1 mean this is likely to slide into 2013.

Gennaro Russo, head of CIRA space systems and program manager for hypersonic unmanned space vehicles (USV), says plans for USV-2, a follow-on to the baseline test vehicle USV-1, have been abandoned in favor of a smaller test vehicle, USV-4, which is aimed at hitching a ride on a HiFire shot. Furthermore, Russo says “there will be a framework agreement signed later with the U.S. for involvement in HiFire.” CIRA is conducting a feasibility study into USV-4, a 2-meter-long hypersonic glider, by year-end, with the intent to fly it on a 15-sec., Mach 8 test flight in three years.