Stem Of The Future

Minister For Industry, Science And Technology Karen Andrews Discusses Where Science, Technology, Engineering, And Maths Education Can Take Us.

- Damien Martin

Maybe a job at Spacely Sprockets isn’t in your future, or even your grandchildren’s future, but the space industry plays a much larger role in our everyday lives than we might stop to think about. Anything from checking Google Maps for your fastest route to the office to monitoring water flows for drought preparedness relies on satellites, and getting those satellites into space is one of the foundations of the space business in the 21st century.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews, whose department oversees the year-old Australian Space Agency (ASA), envisions the country playing a significant part in future space missions and the dream of space inspiring young Australians to study science and maths. She spoke with VENTURE recently about the importance of STEM education, the jobs of the future, and evidence-based decision-making.

THE BUSINESS OF SPACE

“Back at the time that Neil Amstrong first walked on the moon, I guess you had ‘The Jetsons,’ which was really quite Space Age, people were living in outer space and commuting in outer space in space vehicles quite similar to cars,” Andrews said of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon in which protagonist George Jetson ran a digital indexer at Spacely Space Sprockets in Orbit City. “So we’re not there yet — clearly — but I think we’re well on the way. When you look at space travel, clearly the unimaginable has actually happened.

“Sixty years ago the prospect of man walking on the moon was probably limited, not many people would have believed that it was possible, and it was really considered to be a moon-shot. Here we are where we’ve already had missions to Mars. Now they haven’t been manned, but they will be.”