What is the Moon to Mars Initiative Demonstrator Feasibility Grants?
The Moon to Mars Initiative Demonstrator Feasibility Grants is a program that provides industry and research institutions with grant funds for new feasibility activities for space projects.
Background
The $150 million Australian Moon to Mars initiative supports Australian businesses and researchers to join NASA’s inspirational endeavour to go forward to the Moon and then go on to Mars. Investment focuses in Australia over a five-year period, commencing in 2020-21.
The initiative forms an important element of the Advancing Space: Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019-2028, primarily addressing the National and International pillars to open doors for Australian businesses and researchers to access international space supply chains, create jobs in Australia
and support the growth of industries across the economy through the development and application of space technologies. Through this, Australian organisations will join with NASA and other international partners to bring Australian capabilities to space, the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Objectives
The objectives of the Moon to Mars Initiative Demonstrator Feasibility Grants are to:
- demonstrate Australian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) capacity and capability to develop space projects with a clear potential to support Moon to Mars activities for any of the following:
- qualification
- space operability
- space support
- access to space
- develop and demonstrate the feasibility of space projects with the:
- potential to operate or directly support operations in space
- ability to support Moon to Mars activities
- demonstrate the value, including commercial value, of space projects to the space industry and marketplace
- develop Australian SME capability in early mission development activities
Funding
Grants from $750,000 to $10,000,000 for space projects. Grant amount will be up to 75% of eligible project expenditure.
Eligible Projects
To be eligible your Demonstrator Feasibility project must:
- be aimed at improving and/or demonstrating the feasibility of your space project, and moving from phases A to B to phases C to F of mission development
- have a clear potential to support Moon to Mars activities
- align with priorities in the Advancing Space: Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019-2028
- have at least $100,000 in eligible expenditure.
Eligible activities may include:
- concurrent design studies
- technical feasibility studies and reviews
- preliminary design review
- conceptual design
- prototype design and development
- risk assessments, including national security risk
- developing a business case
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible you must:
- have an Australian business number (ABN)
- be registered for the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
You must also be one of the following entities:
- an entity incorporated in Australia and a trading corporation, where your trading activities either:
- form a sufficiently significant proportion of the corporation’s overall activities as to merit it being described as a trading corporation
- are a substantial and not merely peripheral activity of the corporation
- a Publicly Funded Research Organisation as defined in the Demonstrator Feasibility Guidelines
Joint applications are acceptable, provided you have a lead organisation who is the main driver of the project and is eligible to apply.
The program can only accept applications where you can provide evidence from your board (or chief executive officer or equivalent if there is no board) that:
- the project is supported
- you can complete the project and meet the costs of the project not covered by Demonstrator Feasibility Grants funding
- confirms you are a trading corporation
The eligibility criteria cannot be waived under any circumstances.
Timing
Applications close 01 July 2022.
