“If someone told me when I joined this organisation that we would one day help get a robot to the moon, I would have laughed at them, but that’s exactly what’s happened,” Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, the Australian Industry Group, said today.
“Our congratulations to the ELO2 Consortium, led by Ai Group member EPE Oceania and Lunar Outpost Oceania, which was today awarded the $42 million Australian Space Agency project to design and construct the first Australian-made lunar rover, which will be controlled from a remote operations centre in Australia.”
Ai Group’s Corporate and Commercial Legal team, led by Susie Reece Jones and Rhiannon Willis, have provided legal support to launch the rover — or “Roo-ver”, as it is known.
“The mission has taken two years so far to deliver a preliminary design,” Mr Willox said.
“EPE Oceania has worked with technical and design partners from each state and territory, with 10 Australian universities contributing and, of course, NASA in the United States.
“Roo-ver will be a true exemplar of Australian industry and research collaboration.”
Roo-ver’s science mission is to better understand the lunar surface and it will also support Australia’s contribution to NASA’s Moon exploration Artemis Program.
“It will create (at least) 25 jobs and also proves that Australia has the potential to be a critical part of the space age, which sews the seeds of an exciting future workforce,” Mr Willox said.
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