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Five Australian SMEs win space grants

Five Australian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have won $3.6 million in Moon to Mars: Supply Chain Capability Improvement Grants from the Australian Space Agency.

This grant program provides Australian businesses with funds to build their capabilities to deliver products and services into domestic and international space industry supply chains that could support Moon to Mars activities and get more Australian-made products and services into space.

The Australian Moon to Mars initiative is designed to support NASA’s Project Artemis which, in early 2026, is scheduled to launch a manned lunar fly-by followed, a year later, by a manned lunar landing on the unexplored south polar region of the moon.

The Australian Moon to Mars program includes a Trailblazer that is funding the development by the ELO2consortium of a semi-autonomous lunar rover which will gather soil and rock samples from the lunar surface for NASA.

The five grant winners are the eleventh cohort of SMEs to win funding under this program. They include:

entX ($1,000,000) This project aims to gain flight heritage for a prototype Radio isotope Heater Unit (RHU), potentially becoming the first privately developed RHU to successfully navigate various regulatory processes to gain flight heritage. This will ensure the entX RHU is recognised as a credible supply chain solution for lunar night survival by international payload developers and position the technology for future lunar flight heritage.

Lunar payloads encounter major challenges surviving the lunar night with onboard systems unlikely to withstand the extreme low temperatures. entX has developed an RHU to revolutionise lunar exploration, providing developers with a safe, cost-effective option to extend asset lifetimes from a single lunar day to several months.

Fleet Space Technologies ($994,956) The project aims to develop a novel microelectromechanical relative gravimeter (MRG) system to address a capability gap in Size Weight and Power (SWaP) efficient gravity instrumentation for resource exploration on Earth and in space. The MRG system will improve subsurface exploration and resource delineation results by providing a gravity measurement within a compact form factor.
Advanced Navigation ($856,077) The project AIMM (Australian IMU for Moon to Mars), will leverage Advanced Navigation’s expertise to develop a locally designed and manufactured Inertial Navigation Unit (IMU) aligned with the needs of Australian launch partner Gilmour Space Technologies and Artemis partner Intuitive Machines. A critical element of launch systems and autonomous lunar rovers alike is precise and reliable navigation systems. Recent space missions underline the impact of Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) systems in executing complex missions safely and in line with objectives of the program.
Nominal Systems
(Space Services Australia)
($556,189)
This project will enhance Phenomenal Systems’ (Phenomenal) ability to offer its virtual satellite testbeds to key international markets. Phenomenal, will upgrade its virtual testbed products to support the testing, validation and regulation of rendezvous, close-proximity operations, and docking (RCPOD) involved with on-orbit servicing. The project unlocks supply chain opportunities across the US and Europe and provides a foundation for supporting future Moon-to-Mars initiatives.
Element Robotics ($257,479) Element Robotics developed LunarSim – a simulation environment for lunar exploration. LunarSim was developed to support Element Robotics design of the autonomy system the during Moon-to-Mars Trailblazer Stage 1. Through this grant, we will raise the LunarSim technology readiness level (TRL) to 6 by integrating production level digital twin technologies for modelling of general cyber-physical systems and enhancing the simulation visual environment. This will enable simulation of missions beyond lunar rovers. LunarSim incorporates high-fidelity graphics, an elevation model for specific regions of interest in the lunar southern polar surface mapped to date, digital twin libraries for commonly used rover electronics and tooling to support end-to-end mission simulation for different lunar surface missions.

“These projects demonstrate the ingenuity that Australia has to offer our international partners in space,” said Mr Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australian Space Agency. “Through this investment we are helping Australian companies gain crucial space heritage and grow strong customer bases – which will generate more opportunities for Australia to collaborate on the global stage.”

“These investments will help further embed us in the global space supply chain, working on the global Moon to Mars mission,” according to Mr Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science.

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