Adelaide will be the centre of the space industry universe this week as 4,000 delegates stream through the city for the 2017 International Astronautical Congress.

Australian astronaut Dr Andrew Thomas and billionaire space entrepreneur Elon Musk will make appearances at the congress in a week of space talks on topics including colonising the moon and Mars, what to do with space junk and the laws of space.

The event will put some of the world's biggest space brains in the one room — the heads of international space agencies, astronauts, scientists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, politicians, space industry companies big and small.

Adelaide is expected to hit peak space excitement when Mr Musk presents plans by his company SpaceX to send manned spacecraft to the moon and Mars.

But what's in it for Australia?

Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) chair Michael Davis helped to organise the astronautical congress.

He's been campaigning for the establishment of a dedicated Australian Space Agency to enable more Australians to find work in the rapidly expanding space industry.

He spoke to the ABC about what Australians should know about the space industry.

How big is the Australian space industry?

Space Industry Association of Australia chair Michael Davis says the industry needs stronger government support. ( ABC News: Michael Coggan )

"The international space industry is worth about $US400 billion a year," he said.

"It's a vibrant industry employing about 11,000 to 12,000 people in Australia and generating about $3 billion to $4 billion, but it's very fragmented."

Why does Australia need a dedicated Australian space agency?

"We believe that space in this country needs stronger leadership at government level, greater coordination and further support for converting research and development into commercial products and growing the number of jobs in the sector."

What do you need to study to get a job in the space industry?

"Well the good thing about space is that it employs people from many different disciplines," Mr Davis said.

"The majority would be engineers and scientists so you'd need to study mechanical or electrical engineering or many fields of science or geology if you're interested in planetary science.

"It also employs lawyers, business people, lots of people in the defence sector and even doctors get involved in aerospace medicine."

In the future do you think Australians will still have to become American citizens to be an astronaut?

"That's been the story in the past, but one day if our space program grows the way we would like to see it growing there will be international agreements between the bigger space agencies and the Australian space agency perhaps to train and fly an Australian astronaut," Mr Davis said.

"That would be the dream of many of our young engineers and scientists."