ANU provides laser communications support for NASA’s Artemis II crewed moon mission The Australian National University (ANU) is partnering with NASA along with the Australian Space Agency (ASA) and CSIRO as it prepares to send astronauts back to the moon as part of the Artemis II mis...

Press conference shout-out to the Australian National University, which is a test site for #ArtemisII optical communications! 🧪

I’m pleased Australia is continuing its communications role in space travel

Without international partnerships Lunar travel would be much less safe or even feasible. Space research and exploration cannot be done alone.

We don't go alone for us, but together for all.

And what I think is the most important aspect of the #ArtemisII mission - for the first time, a more diverse crew will extend their reach out into deep space, and look back and see our beautiful, blue spaceship home planet.

Their experience will be representing so many more people!

Did you know that there is also another Aussie team that is working with the #ArtemisII mission?

Radio frequencies are not chock-o-block with all the different applications that use them.

So, people are thinking about using lasers to transfer data.

Demo happens on this mission with Mt Stromlo!

Exactly 12 hours out of lift off time for #ArtemisII ! 🚀

I'm super excited to share this story, once again on the little valley, just tucked away outside Canberra will play a huge role in this historic mission.

Look at these beautiful antennas at the @canberradsn.bsky.social

#SpaceAustralia

Silhouetted image of the Artemis II rocket standing at the launch pad with the Sun behind it

Importantly, #ArtemisII is going to set some new records that have not been attempted for 54 years.

And for the first time, the first woman, the first person of colour and the first non-American will travel to lunar space.

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/aust...

📸 ULA

#SpaceAustralia

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A man stands next to a relatively large optical telescope, and is looking into the side of it. The telescope is located inside the dome of an observatory which is open.

The CDSCC is not the only Aussie team that is working with the #ArtemisII mission - researchers from @scienceanu.bsky.social are also testing emerging technology that allows data to be transmitted via lasers, instead of radio waves at Mount Stromlo.

📸 Nic Vevers / ANU

#SpaceAustralia

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Black and white photo of a road with two arrows pointing in opposite directions. To the left of the road, and a little down the distance is a large radio telescope, pointing away from the viewer.

Two radio antennas at the CDSCC. Their dishes are both pointing at the same inclination angle.

A large white dish antenna in the distance over a grassy hill. In the foreground a large boulder. Behind and further back are some rolling hills.

Three large radio dish antennas, one in the foreground, and two off in the distance.

Tomorrow morning, Australia will play a vital role in supporting #ArtemisII through @canberradsn.bsky.social

@rami.spaceaustralia.com chatted with CDSCC, @drspacejunk.bsky.social, NASA and more about this historical mission.

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/aust...

📸 R. Mandow

#SpaceAustralia

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Before a flyby can be properly considered, the #ESAJuice team need to improve knowledge of the moon's position. Stellar occultations are a great way to do that. The current occultation prediction is here:
opop.obspm.fr/media/data/m...

Register participation here:
opop.obspm.fr/create_repor...

Any Sydney-based astronomers here? A team at Andalucia is coordinating an occultation campaign for one of Jupiter's small (2-5km) irregular moons, #Kallichore (a candidate for an #ESAJuice flyby) that'll be passing in front of a star at ~12:20UT on March 18th.

opop.obspm.fr/media/data/c...

Could a powerful geomagnetic storm be the reason 8,000 Victorian homes suddenly lost power in January this year?

@rami.spaceaustralia.com chats with Dr Richard Marshall from BoM Space Weather about the risks of solar storms.

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/eart...

📸 NASA SVS

#SpaceAustralia

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Lunar Eclipse Live: Sydney to Nagoya See the blood moon phase of the lunar eclipse from the city’s highest natural point at Sydney Observatory.

There's a #LunarEclipse coming this evening for folks in Australia, NZ and the Pacific Nations.

Sydney Observatory is offerring opportunity to catch the eclipse in person, and online - partnering with Nagoya City Museum in Japan.

Find out more details below

And Over to You: Five Conversations on Sample Return Mission And Over to You: Five Conversations on Sample Return Missions Half a Century of Partnership, A New Era of Discovery And Over to You is a...

On Thursday (02/25) at 5pm JST I'll chat with Nate Taylor (Australian Space Agency) about the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission 🛰️, and the challenge of outreach for tiny asteroid grains that might tell a story as big as Earth. 🔭 Will this go smoothly? We have no idea. Come and join us for this online webinar 🧪

Two people: Dr Katie Mack and Rami Mandow, standing outside the entry door to the SUPL facility. Both are wearing a high-vis vest, helmet, glasses.

A large, empty room inside an underground mining facility. The walls are lined with a special paint and feature running pipes and scaffolding. There is also a crane at the top.

One of Australia’s most ambitious physics experiments that will search for Dark Matter is shaping up below regional Victoria.

@astrokatie.com & @rami.spaceaustralia.com visited the site to see the project taking shape.

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/aust...

#SpaceAustralia

📸 F. Morrison/SUPL

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Thanks for having us, folks!

Interested in learning about the Stawell Underground Physics Lab and the SABRE South #darkmatter experiment? @spaceaustralia.com is a great place to start.

Thank you @rami.spaceaustralia.com and @astrokatie.com for your interest & engagement in the project!
www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/aust... 🧪

Two people: Dr Katie Mack and Rami Mandow, standing in the large main chamber of the SUPL facility. They are wearing high-vis vests and protective boots in the clean room.

Huge thanks to the OzGrav, ARC-DMPP and SUPL teams who supported and facilitated this visit in 2025.

#SpaceAustralia

SUPL door sign: Completion of Stage 1 of the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory was officially celebrated on Friday 19 August 2022. The facility was built on the lands of the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawarjali, Wergaia, and Jupagulk peoples, and we are proud to acknowledge their continued custodianship of these lands and waters. The facility was funded with the support of the Australian Government and the Victorian Government. The facility was constructed with the support of the Stawell Gold Mines.

After nearly a decade of work, scientists, engineers and researchers from @darkmatteraus.bsky.social @ozgrav.bsky.social and the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) expect to begin first data-taking this year -- a major milestone that could reshape our understanding of the Universe.

Two people: Dr Katie Mack and Rami Mandow, standing outside the entry door to the SUPL facility. Both are wearing a high-vis vest, helmet, glasses.

A large, empty room inside an underground mining facility. The walls are lined with a special paint and feature running pipes and scaffolding. There is also a crane at the top.

One of Australia’s most ambitious physics experiments that will search for Dark Matter is shaping up below regional Victoria.

@astrokatie.com & @rami.spaceaustralia.com visited the site to see the project taking shape.

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/aust...

#SpaceAustralia

📸 F. Morrison/SUPL

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

Checking out the God of Chaos — Apep — using JWST and the VLT.

This unique triple stellar system is wild!

Some nice work on one of the papers here led by fellow Macquarie University student Ryan White!

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

An extremely rare glitch event occurred on a millisecond pulsar. This nice paper is by fellow PhD'er Bhavnesh Bhat from the Uni. of Manchester - I was very excited to write this one up!

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

I was extremely excited and so very happy to have met, and interviewed the person who discovered pulsars this year - Dame Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

I think that will be a huge career highlight for me!

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

My very first paper of my PhD!

This was four years in the making, and for the first time, we had direct evidence of the origin of this event as a result of the disturbance in the millisecond pulsar PSR J1713+0747 magnetosphere.

Super proud of this one!

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

This story had me all fired up earlier this year) - the unintended broadband emissions from constellation satellites (like Starlink) have been creating radio frequency interference with radio telescopes and radio astronomy.

Actually ... still fired up!

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

Earlier this year, astronomers caught the radio signal from ASKAP J1832-0911 - a Long-Period Transient (which are all the buzz in #RadioAstronomy atm). But for the first time, coincident X-ray emissions were also observed with Chandra for this object.

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Stories from #SpaceAustralia in 2025:

This was really cool - and it was from the team at Google (with a few science friends) that did this to help improve coverage for the Android community).

Smartphones and GPS signals can improve tracking of our ionosphere and solar storms!

Jocelyn Bell Burnell standing next to a field full of poles that have wires running across the top of them connecting them together. This is the radio telescope.

Almost forgot!

28 November = special day!

It's the day (1967) that Dame Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell confirmed pulsars!

We've only known about them for <60 years.

Had a chat with 👑 JBB about this earlier this year 👇

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/inte...

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#SpaceAustralia

📸 Uni. of Cambridge

A terrific writeup from @rami.spaceaustralia.com on our recent Apep results and press release! Would highly recommend giving it a read :)

Two new papers have used data from JWST and ESO's VLT to help uncover new details of the chaos amongst the stars: Apep

@rami.spaceaustralia.com spoke with one of the paper's lead authors @astroryan.bsky.social about this incredible system.

www.spaceaustralia.com/news/order-a...

#SpaceAustralia

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