No worries

This is taken from my talk to the Department of State’s celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Moon landing. 

 

Some of you may already know about the role Australia played back in 1969. Others might be wondering why is there an Australian on stage when this is the US Government’s official celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing? Most of you won’t care, because with me, comes all that Aussie wine.

I’m going to give you the quick version of our involvement, and tell you about a small town in regional NSW called Parkes.

Parkes is about a 4.5 hour drive due west of Sydney. From the City, you have to drive out through Parramatta, over the Blue Mountains, you go past Katoomba, through Bathurst, and then after about after you’ve hit Orange you’ll eventually get to Parkes.

The town is famous for two things. One, the annual week long Elvis Festival that attracts almost 30 thousand people a year.

And two, the Dish.

The Dish is a 64m Radio Telescope that weighs about 1000 tonnes and is operated by Australia’s science agency, CSIRO. In 1969, the Dish was critical to communications between Earth and the Apollo Mission, and was how images of the Moon landing made it around the world.

NASA got wind of CSIROs plans to build the dish in the late 1950s. A large antennae in the Southern hemisphere was needed to support communications, and transmit biometric data and systems data. The Dish was a perfect match for what they needed in order to communicate with the astronauts some 400 thousand kilometres away.

So of course when NASA came knocking and asked if Australia would assist in what must be the most heroic, most daring, most inspiring feat in human and scientific history, we of course said: “yeah nah, sorry mate but the Dish is for astronomy.”

Not to be persuaded, NASA came back a few years later and again. And this time: “yeah nah, its still a no mate. Can’t help ya”.

But, in 1968, just a year before the Apollo 11 mission was scheduled, senior officials from NASA and CSIRO, sat down for a private dinner, they shared a bottle of Aussie wine (make sure to try the Jansz) and talked it out. Lives were at stake. This time, it wasn’t a “no”, it was a “no worries”.

And I’m proud to say that the images that were beamed to 600 million viewers, and that are now so synonymous with the Moon Landing, came via Australia.

This month we’re celebrating two things. The first is of course the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing. What an amazing feat. If we wrote a book about the history of human kind, the rise and fall of nation states will be lucky to get a mention. But that time we went to the Moon will no doubt get an entire chapter.

The second thing we are celebrating, is the first birthday of the Australian Space Agency. Australia is not new to space. We have been in this game for decades. And we have amazing capabilities in Earth Observations, Communications, Robotics, Materials, Remote Asset Management. The Agency has been established to make sure that for Space 2.0 we’re at the table and are contributing as we write that next chapter.

Everything about space is hard. We did not have the technology communicate between Sydney and Houston until 1966, let alone between Earth and the Moon. On the day of the moon landings, 70mph winds almost blew the dish right over.

Going back to the Moon, going beyond the Moon, further exploring space, further utilising space — will need a collective “no worries” from all of us, be we government, commercial, international or astronomer.