South Australian artificial intelligence (AI) company AICRAFT has successfully launched its edge computing module to orbit.
The device was launched on Friday 10 February on board the JANUS-1 satellite of Antaris Space from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre of India under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
As a key sub-system of the JANUS-1 satellite, AICRAFT’s edge computing module, named Pulsar, is designed to perform ultra-fast processing of space data using artificial intelligence at lowest power consumption.
In its preliminary tests on the ground, the company reportedly demonstrated the ability to classify 1,250 images of Earth Observation data in about 10 seconds. This was achieved using the device in low-power mode which the company expects to enable 24/7 computation, even on ‘shoe-box-size’ nanosatellites, compared to the 10 minutes a day with current market solutions.
Designed and manufactured in Australia, Pulsar can toggle between low-power and high-performance modes which can give a further four times speedup of its low-power processing. The company said the module's power/performance ratio is currently 'unmatched' in this size of devices (Pulsar is 95mm x 90mm x 25mm).
“Getting to this point was a phenomenal journey for us," CEO of AICRAFT Dr Tony Scoleri said. "The JANUS-1 mission gave us the focus to build an advanced and space-grade AI technology in a very short time (9 months) and provided a springboard for AICRAFT to enter the space ecosystem.
"The collaboration with the US-based Antaris Space commenced through their Australian subsidiary company which is also a member of the Aurora Space Cluster, an initiative of SmartSat CRC for startups, and enabled to combine forces.”
Antaris, the software platform provider for space, fully conceived, designed and manufactured a satellite using the company’s own software end-to-end in a cloud-based environment. Creation of the satellite JANUS-1 involved eight organisations spanning seven countries collaborating virtually through Antaris’ cloud-based platform, which features open APIs and core open-source elements.
AICRAFT and Antaris signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Australian Space Forum in Adelaide, South Australia in March 2022. The satellite JANUS-1 was completed in 10 months from concept to launch readiness, with a reported cost saving of 75 per cent over comparable satellite missions. Pulsar was the only Australian payload in this mission.
“This is an exciting flight for us, and we are already in conversations with potential customers for our next mission,” Dr Scoleri said.