The PhiSat-1 satellite is about the size of a cereal box and was ejected from a rocket’s dispenser alongside 45 other satellites. The rocket launched from Guiana Space Centre on September 2nd.

Intel has integrated its Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) into PhiSat-1 – enabling large amounts of data to be processed on the device. This helps to prevent useless data being sent back to Earth and consuming precious bandwidth.

“The capability that sensors have to produce data increases by a factor of 100 every generation, while our capabilities to download data are increasing, but only by a factor of three, four, five per generation,” says Gianluca Furano, data systems and onboard computing lead at the ESA.

Around 30 percent data savings are expected by using AI at the edge on the PhiSat-1.

“Space is the ultimate edge,” says Aubrey Dunne, chief technology officer of Ubotica. “The Myriad was absolutely designed from the ground up to have an impressive compute capability but in a very low power envelope, and that really suits space applications.”

PhiSat-1 is currently in a sun-synchronous orbit around 329 miles (530 km) above Earth and travelling at over 17,000mph (27,500kmh).

The satellite’s mission is to assess things like polar ice for monitoring climate change, and soil moisture for the growth of crops. One day it could help to spot wildfires in minutes rather than hours or detect environmental accidents at sea.

A successor, PhiSat-2, is currently planned to test more of these possibilities. PhiSat-2 will also carry another Myriad 2.

Myriad 2 was not originally designed for use in orbit. Specialist chips which are protected against radiation are typically used for space missions and can be “up to two decades behind state-of-the-art commercial technology,” explains Dunne.

Incredibly, the Myriad 2 survived 36 straight hours of being blasted with radiation at CERN in late-2018 without any modifications.

ESA announced the joint team was “happy to reveal the first-ever hardware-accelerated AI inference of Earth observation images on an in-orbit satellite.”

PhiSat-1 and PhiSat-2 will be part of a future network with intersatellite communication systems.

(Image Credit: CERN/M. Brice)

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The constellation will be 192-strong and called ‘Xingshidai’ reports China Central Television.

China intends to use the satellites for environmental monitoring, disaster prevention, and traffic management. AI will help to process images to avoid sending poor quality pictures back to Earth.

Xingshidai satellites will likely use China’s Julang-1 booster rockets to reach orbit. Julang-1 can put satellites weighing up to 150kg (330lbs) into orbit at an altitude of 372 miles (600 kilometres).

The launch of a Julong-1 is estimated to cost around 25 million yuan (£2.87million).

Project manager Wang Long told China’s Global Times newspaper yesterday:

“The coordinated smart system will independently analyse the data it obtains rapidly and decide what data should be sent back to the ground, or what orders it should carry out for the next step.

This could shorten the time that would otherwise be needed to receive orders from the ground for every little move.”

China’s aerospace industry is growing fast. In January, the nation reported successfully landing a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon. Last month, China successfully launched its Chang Zheng 11 carrier rocket with seven spacecraft on board from a floating launch platform. Next year, the country plans to launch its Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover.

The application of AI to China’s aerospace initiatives has enormous potential. However, some experts believe China needs to advance its capabilities in areas such as computer chips, radar, and optical devices to fully realise its vision.

Xingshidai’s satellites are being developed by ADASpace, a private Chinese company based in Chengdu.

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