ANU's vital role in helping NASA get to the moon and Mars

Based at the Australian National University's Mt Stromlo observatory, the quantum optical ground station will be launched on Wednesday and will use lasers to communicate with satellites and crewed space missions.

ANU Institute for Space director Anna Moore said this will be the first time that optical lasers are used to support human exploration in space.

The ground station will also guide future research on advanced communications technologies.

Prof Moore said the technology will improve the bandwidth, security and quality of communications.

"Most communications which we depend on a daily basis... currently use radio technologies," she said.

"There are growing limitations and stresses on those kinds of systems and this infrastructure is an answer to how we can do this differently in the future using optical lasers."

The technology will be used as part of NASA's Artemis program, which seeks to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. It is also expected to be used during future missions to Mars.

"We're going to be able to video the next astronauts operating and living on the moon and be able to talk to them too as well as download what they say back to us," Prof Moore said.

Closer to home, the technology could also play a crucial role in Australia's bushfire response efforts.

Professor Moore said it could enable researchers to detect where bushfires are going to to be.

"To be able to do that you have to survey something as large as Australia," she said.

"That just equals massive amounts of data that needs to be downloaded in real time.

"This infrastructure enables much higher levels of data to be downloaded, which is a current constraint for something like bushfire observations."

Five years in the making, the technology has amassed interest from a range of industry partners, from small start ups to established global players.

Prof Moore said multiple sectors depend on information that can only be accessed through space, including telehealth, advanced manufacturing and weather.

She added that the station was an example of how the university and Australian research was making major contributions to the future of space technology and exploration.

"It really puts, not just the ANU, but Australia ahead on the international stage," she said.

"There aren't many countries that have this level of sophistication. And there aren't many countries that have Australia's unique, cloud free continental scale landmass, to be able to leave a huge footprint as well."

The $2.4 million ANU Quantum Optical Ground Station has received funding from the ACT Government, Australian Space Agency, CSIRO and TESAT.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the ground station is a key national asset that positioned the country and the Indo-Pacific region to collaborate and compete on the global stage.