CSIRO’s Space Technology Future Science Platform (Space FSP) harnesses our nation’s technical strengths and natural advantages, generating new innovations that hold the potential to generate significant societal benefits and commercial opportunities and will help transform the Australian space sector.

Connect with us to see how our advanced manufacturing and innovative space technologies can help us all make the impossible, possible.

multiresolution scanner mounted on top of a tracked rover sitting on a Moon-like surface in the dust area of the ISRU Facility

Multiresolution scanner

Combining CSIRO’s wildcat and stereo-depth vision technology for high resolution, autonomous 3D scanning for space-vehicle interiors, exteriors or off-world rover applications.

Radiation shielding

Developing novel metal matrix composite and polymer matrix composite materials for space radiation shielding. Results from ground-based proton radiation tests show a more than 20 per cent improvement when compared to standard aluminium shielding.

scientist holds jar of blue pellets

MOFs for space

Metal organic framework (MOFs) are able to separate different types of molecules efficiently and with high precision. We’re exploring potential space exploration applications including for in-situ resource utilisation and CO2 recycling for closed-loop systems.

Lunar dust mitigating coatings

Developing coatings that could passively prevent or reduce the adhesion of lunar dust on surfaces, such as vehicles, solar panels, lunar habitats or spacesuits. These coatings could be used alone in applications where active protection systems are not feasible, or in combination, to reduce the energy and weight requirements of the active systems.

digital recreation of room floor coloured blue, walls gradient from green to red revealing height

Wildcat SLAM

From traversing underground caverns, mapping mineshafts and exploring new terrain, our robotics team are now applying their world-class 3D Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping software, Wildcat, to the space domain. Wildcat enables autonomous robot teams to successfully navigate unsafe, complex and unstructured environments without GPS or other external positioning information.

In-situ resource utilisation

CSIRO’s lunar testbed simulates some of the physical characteristics of the Moon’s surface at various scales for realistic testing and evaluation of rovers and related equipment.

Flexible solar arrays

A lightweight, self-deployable solar power generation system that significantly improves upon the power output (W/kg) of existing solar panels for CubeSats.

Optical sensor payloads

Leveraging our advanced manufacturing and Earth observation infrastructure, to design, manufacture and test satellite optical sensor payloads. We are developing wide field of view, hyperspectral imagers for high resolution, narrow bandwidth, Earth observation satellite missions.