SmartSat commits $1m to NSW space technology projects

Australian space research centre SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has committed over $1 million to support the development of new space technology. It will be tested in space as payloads on the Waratah Seed WS-1 (Waratah Seed) spacecraft — Australia’s first space qualification-focused ride-share mission, due to take its maiden flight later in 2023.

The SmartSat NSW Node and SmartSat-initiated space startup hub the Aurora Space Startups Cluster are funding projects which combined represent a significant portion of the Waratah Seed mission budget.

Waratah Seed is an Australian-built 6U-sized satellite, partly funded by the NSW Government and developed by the ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs, and their Applications (CUAVA), based at the University of Sydney (USYD) with the support of a number of NSW-based partners: Saber Astronautics, Macquarie University, the Delta-V Space Hub, ACSER at University of NSW, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and USYD.

The project aims to help establish foundational capabilities in the NSW space sector and the Australian space industry as a whole. Its mission is to deliver spaceflight opportunities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for novel commercial and R&D payloads (scientific or technical instruments carried on board a satellite) to test and prove their function and capability in space.

One of two SmartSat NSW Node-funded projects is a heat management solution for onboard ‘space edge’ computer chips. As heat management is a significant challenge for LEO satellites, this technology is attracting strong investor and commercial interest worldwide.

Developed by an industry-research consortium formed by space startup companies Mawson Rovers Pty Ltd and Spiral Blue Pty Ltd with SmartSat CRC research partner UTS, the technology will demonstrate a novel heat management solution as a vital enabler of space edge computing systems for the current and next generation of Australian and internationally manufactured payloads and satellites.

Taofiq Huq, CEO and co-founder of Spiral Blue, said the heat management technology would drive the development of future satellite services.

“To realise advanced LEO satellite services, increased on-board computational resources are needed. But these loads will generate heat that must be managed at a CPU chip level to maximise the number of images we can classify and the answers we can provide from data on-board our customers’ spacecraft,” he said.

“Given the wide-ranging relevance of this issue for future Australian small satellites, demonstrating a solution is of significant potential technical and commercial value.”

The second supported payload is an on-orbit demonstration of the capabilities of AICRAFT’s space edge computing module, Pulsar-2, which was selected for sponsorship by the Aurora Space Startups Cluster. The locally developed Pulsar-2 space edge computer module claims superior power efficiency compared to existing competing models, allowing an in-space edge application to run continuously for a complete orbital path (approx 90 minutes) instead of the more typical 10 minutes. This project represents a significant space manufacturing opportunity for both NSW and South Australia (SA), with the SA-designed Pulsar-2 module currently being assembled and tested at GPC Electronics’ NSW-based advanced manufacturing facilities in Western Sydney.

Dr Tim Parsons, SmartSat NSW Node Coordinator, member of the Waratah Seed project and board member of the Aurora Space Cluster, said that the mission is giving Australian startups and their partners in R&D a valuable pathway to earning space-flight heritage, critical to win customers locally and internationally.

“The space sector is critical for our nation’s future. Learning how to support space startups to become space-qualified and grow their market share drives sustainable long-term economic growth, and positions Australia at the forefront of emerging space technologies and business models,” he said.

Dr Tony Scoleri, CEO and co-founder of AICRAFT, said that participation in the Waratah Seed mission was essential in developing and demonstrating AICRAFT’s space edge computing module.

AICRAFT hopes to make the device more reliable and commercially viable for all CubeSat makers by engineering an improved solution that reduces manufacturing costs and meets certification criteria by ESA/NASA standards.

“Currently, the operational duration of existing AI products strongly limits customers’ desired usage. We wish to remedy this with Pulsar-2, which can execute with 50% less power for four times the amount of computation at its entry level. This mission will be a major milestone for developing our breakthrough technology,” he said.

Image caption: AICRAFT team. Image: Supplied