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AUSTRALIA is launching its space agency this week in an effort to capture a share of the booming space market. The Australian government has committed A$26 million ($19 million) over four years to set up its operations and a further A$15 million ($11 million) over three years to invest in research and development.

The funding is fairly small 鈥� NASA has an annual budget of $20 billion and the European Space Agency鈥檚 is $7 billion 鈥� meaning that missions to Mars are off the table. Nevertheless, other countries have set up thriving space programmes with equally limited budgets.

For example, the first successful rocket launch from New Zealand came in January, less than two years after the nation set up a space agency with a $3 million-a-year budget.

Luxembourg also joined the space race in 2016, committing $230 million to support asteroid mining start-ups. Already, US companies such as Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources have set up European headquarters in the tiny nation.

The UK space sector has also flourished since the launch of a national space agency in 2010. Its annual revenue has almost doubled and the number of people it employs has increased by about 6 per cent a year. The agency鈥檚 annual budget is 拢370 million ($490 million).

With the global space economy , it is easy to see why the Australian government wants in on this new gold rush. But it has some significant catching up to do: to date, only , and all were launched from other countries.

鈥淭here is plenty of empty space for launch sites and being near the equator will help rockets reach orbit鈥�

Then again, Australia boasts several advantages. It has lots of empty space for launch sites and its proximity to the equator, where Earth鈥檚 surface is rotating fastest, means rockets will get a boost into orbit. As well as this, aerials in Australia can 鈥渟ee鈥� one-third of satellites鈥� orbits of Earth and communicate with them over a vast area of sky. And it already has a designed to track spacecraft on long journeys.

Dozens of space companies have recently popped up in Australia. Adelaide-based , for example, is building nanosatellites designed to help farmers monitor soil moisture and livestock movements.

recently leased 275 hectares in a remote part of the Northern Territory to build a commercial rocket-launching facility. Then there鈥檚 Sydney-based , which has designed a bottle to help astronauts drink beer in microgravity.

Start-ups like these will be able to apply to the Australian Space Agency for seed funding. The agency will help to coordinate their activities and assist with tasks like applying for launch licences. It will also be able to identify opportunities for different projects to collaborate and pool resources.

But perhaps even more importantly, the establishment of a dedicated space agency will inspire the country to think big and to foster innovation and creativity. The initial funding may be modest, but at least it鈥檚 a foot in the door, and it means that Australians won鈥檛 be left behind on Earth.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎ustralia wants a piece of the space gold rush鈥�