Computing in Space Delivers an Edge
- By Lachlan Colquhoun
- September 28, 2022
The transmission of satellite images to Earth for analysis was a significant technological breakthrough. But one Australian company is leading the way and using edge computing to use satellites for imaging and analysis.
Spiral Blue is a Sydney-based startup founded by Taofiq Hug, an aerospace student at the University of NSW. He was midway through a Ph.D. when he decided to put that on hold to start his own company in 2017.
The company offers its customers the opportunity to test their software and process data in space through its Space Edge Services platform, driven by NVIDIA Jetson hardware, Linux-based OS, and Docker containers.
Customers write software on Earth for use in space, using an onboard computing system where Earth observation satellites process captured images. It is an innovation that improves affordability by up to 20 times and cuts lead times and accessibility.
Spiral Blue’s key initiative is Project Rainbow Python, an integrated hyperspectral instrument and an onboard computer that enables chemical analysis of any location on the Earth. It delivers data and information that can be used in agriculture, forestry, and mining for environmental monitoring.
As part of the project, its collaborative partner satellite imaging company Esper will launch two of its hyperspectral imagers in two separate payload missions. Spiral Blue’s Space Edge 1 Hyperspectral satellite will fly alongside and process the images onboard to minimize cost, time, and complexity.
Taofiq Huq says the grant accelerates Spiral Blue’s roadmap for bringing Rainbow Python to maturing and makes hyperspectral data more accessible to the industry.
Heading for Deep Space
By 2023, Spiral Blue expects to operate an operational constellation of Space Edge computers. Then, by 2024, it plans to join Australia’s first mission to the Moon to prove the computers in deep space.
The goal for 2025 is to make Project Nebula a reality, described as the “crystallization of our overall vision for Earth observation and space.”
“It’s really turning one satellite with a computer on board into something which can do the work of ten or 100 satellites”
While Spiral Blue is a space company, Huq explains that its ambitions and motivations are squarely centered on the Earth.
“Like most people, I started looking at space in the realm of astronomy, but I have also personally been looking at new ways of environmental protection,” he says.
“So while I had an interest in space, it was always about how we could use it actually to make the environment on earth safer, and use technologies to monitor not only the environment but activities like illegal fishing and piracy.”
In 2021, Spiral Blue launched two of its Space Edge Zero (SEZ) image processing computers on rockets launched by Richard Branson’s satellite taxi service, Virgin Orbit.
This enabled Spiral Blue to begin testing its technology, which processes satellite imagery in space. A third one was launched on a SpaceX rocket.
“The computers that had been launched to that point were not really powerful enough to do the sort of processing that we were looking at,” says Huq.
“Satellites have been collecting imagery for a long time, and that process won’t be changing, but we saw that instead of using the bandwidth the satellites used to send down images, we could send down insights. We also acquired some images on the commercial market and started building out our algorithms, and we are continuing to add to that.”
Monitoring more, faster
Huq gives an example of images of ships that take up a very small area on the ocean’s surface. Instead of pulling down images from the satellite to Earth for analysis, Spiral Blue’s technology allows for monitoring much larger areas from space, which means more ships can be located faster.
“It’s really turning one satellite with a computer on board into something which can do the work of ten or 100 satellites today using our algorithms,” he says.
Monitoring ships at sea has several applications.
Spiral Blue can identify suspicious vessels at sea so they can be avoided or intercepted. In addition, the company’s technology can deliver information on incidents such as oil spills and illegal dumping faster than other methods, so action can be taken before pollution gets out of hand.
It can also monitor and track vessels, so fewer people are lost at sea, even if they have no AIS (Automatic Identification System) beacon or have it turned off.
Spiral Blue’s insights in forestry can prevent illegal logging and theft, notifying authorities if areas have been targeted. In addition, they can manage and monitor the risk of bushfires and, in urban areas, can measure the effects of urban tree planting on urban heat islands.
Growth has been rapid at Spiral Blue, and from the current headcount of 11, Taofiq Huq says he expects this to reach around 30 next year as the company continues to expand.
Lachlan Colquhoun is the Australia and New Zealand correspondent for CDOTrends and the NextGenConnectivity editor. He remains fascinated with how businesses reinvent themselves through digital technology to solve existing issues and change their entire business models. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/orplayday