SmartSat, a cooperative research centre based in Adelaide, has announced that it will be working on AI-enabled spacecraft, with $7 million committed by the research centre and its partners to develop the technology.
The project is called Spacecraft Autonomy and Onboard AI for Next Generation Space Systems, and according to SmartSat, it has the goal of creating “a set of autonomous algorithms that will enable small and distributed spacecraft to make decisions independently, optimise the use of available resources and capabilities, adapt to changing conditions, and handle critical situations, without intervention from Earth.”
It sounds a little 2001: A Space Odyssey to me, but that’s fiction. I’d like to imagine that there are safeguards against an AI going rogue in the way that HAL-9000 did.
The focus of the funding will go towards things like processing and actionable intelligence systems and real-time resource allocation.
The hope is that, one day, the AI can perform tasks on the ship without human intervention. At the moment, AI is being used in data collection, but in the space research field, that’s about it.
… Yeah, I’m not shaking that HAL-9000 image.
“As autonomous technologies advance and are embraced, their place in space will expand and present new opportunities for applications here on Earth,” SmartSat CEO Professor Andy Koronios said.
“The next generation of satellite communications and earth observation will be achieved using integrated systems of satellite constellations operating autonomously and performing multiple tasks in real-time. Such AI-enabled technologies promise to transform the major sectors of our economy, such as agriculture, farming, and mining, and better serve our defence and national security objectives.”
This development is among many space-related innovations being worked on right now in Australia, with the federal government devoting $34 million to the space sector in the 2023-24 Budget. The research is being funded through the federal government’s Cooperative Research Centre fund.
The initiative pulls together the resources of several Australian companies and universities, in particular; Airbus, Asension, Deakin University, the Defence Science and Technology Group, Leonardo Australia, Saab Australia, Swinburne University of Technology, and the University of South Australia.