The answer is to be found in Questacon's new Australia in Space exhibition.

One of the exhibits is a robotic arm which visitors can manipulate over a simulation of terrain as though the arm was drilling for samples of minerals.

This particular technology comes out of the mining industry in Australia. For obvious reasons, the country is a world leader in machines to explore remote areas for materials. One of the developments of "edge computing" is drills which can analyse on the spot.

"As they develop robotics, they are now looking to get to a point where the sensor of the robotic arm can analyse information at that point in time and make a decision whether to explore that area or move on," Anthony Murfett, the deputy head of the Australian Space Agency, said at the opening of the Questacon exhibition.

"We are taking Australia's skills in driving those big yellow trucks and analysing soil and using Australian technology to identify water or the minerals," he said.

Australia is good at this technology because of the big distances between remote areas where minerals might be and the places back at base where humans can analyse information like a soil sample.

One of the themes of the exhibition is how technology has improved so that, for example, the size of satellites has come down to a few kilograms, and small enough to hold in the palm of a hand.

The exhibition does not look at military applications of this technology. "That's for the Department of Defence," Mr Murfett said.

But the civilian applications are on display, like the ability to use satellites to help us glean more information about droughts or fires.

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Mr Murfett said the American space agency, NASA, was particularly interested in Australian expertise in "remote asset management" - robotics conducted far from humans.

The Australia in Space exhibition starts in Canberra and then tours to other cites and small towns, Bobby Cerini, Questacon's Director of Science and Learning, said.

The show has been designed so that it can fit into big venues or small ones right across the country, Dr Cerini said.

"We want to inspire the next generation," Mr Murfett said.

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