ALICANTE, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Emxys, the aerospace engineering company based in Elche (Alicante), which designs and manufactures satellites for high-performance applications, has started the ‘EdgeAISat’ project, with which they seek to develop an evolution of its Odaliss satellite platform to implement Intelligence Artificial in space.
The project is led by Emxys and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) also participate. In addition, it has been selected within the Strategic Cooperation Projects program of the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI) and is financed with the support of this entity, as indicated by the Elche company in a statement.
The ‘EdgeAISat’ project contemplates the development and manufacturing of a flight model of a satellite for Earth Observation, designed to implement applications of what is called ‘Artificial Intelligence at the Edge’ or Edge AI. This satellite will be integrated and ready for launch at the end of 2025, as expected.
The CTO of Emxys, Francisco García de Quirós, explained that the objective of ‘EdgeAISat’ is “to move a significant part of the image processing to where the data is obtained, in this case on board the satellite itself.”
“This represents a double advantage. On the one hand, the information that the satellite has to send to Earth is significantly reduced, because its AI algorithms extract the most relevant information from the large number of images that the satellite can obtain. On the other, simplifies data processing on Earth, which reduces the waiting time to obtain valid information,” he detailed.
In this way, the system will be able to “almost instantly” detect important events before a human analyst is able to do so, such as forest fires, volcanic eruptions or illegal dumping, among others.
For his part, the CEO of Emxys, José Antonio Carrasco, has pointed out that ‘EdgeAISat’ represents “a great boost” to the development of their technology for high-performance satellites, which allows them to evolve the electronic computing systems that they are currently marketing. towards “a new level.” “This will allow us to be more ambitious in the technical complexity of the space missions that we can undertake,” he highlighted.
Emxys already has experience in sending payloads to space, having participated in its first space mission aboard the Russian spacecraft FOTON-M3, which was launched from Baikonur on a Soyuz rocket in September 2007. In it, systems were placed into orbit critical electronics for the YES2 mission, designed and manufactured by Emxys, and led to the achievement of a Guinness record in 2009 for the largest space structure placed in orbit.
Since then, it has participated in three more space missions, including a combined NASA and Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) mission, launched in 2010 from the Uchinoura Space Center aboard an SS-520 suborbital rocket that flew to 300 km altitude.
During this trajectory, Emxys has worked in “close collaboration” with research groups from national as well as international institutions, such as Colorado State University, the group of Nobel Prize winner in physics Anton Zeilinger at the University of Vienna or the Royal Observatory of Belgium. .
In this sense, the company has stressed that the participation in ‘EdgeAISat’ of the UPV and the UMH “brings together a working group” that has been involved in projects of the European Space Agency (ESA) “for more than ten years.”
The researcher responsible for the Microwave Applications Group of the UPV and president of the Executive Commission of the Val Space Consortium (VSC), Professor Vicente Boria, has highlighted that “satellites made one hundred percent in the Valencian Community are already a reality.” In this sense, he has highlighted the technological advance, “in terms of the payload loaded on the satellite”, which is intended to be developed within the framework of this project; as well as the “example” that he represents in terms of the integration of solutions provided by various entities – companies and universities -.
For his part, the head of the UMH Industrial Electronics Group, Professor Ausias Garrigós, has stressed that participation in this project allows the group to “transfer part of the research carried out in recent years in the field of power systems for small satellites and establish new contacts with different groups in the Valencian community to reinforce synergies with other space technologies.
Emxys is currently working on three short-term space missions. Specifically, it is expected that in 2024 both the OTD-1 demonstration mission of its Odaliss satellite will be launched, aboard a Spectrum launcher from the German company Isar Aerospace; such as the GRASS instrument, from ESA’s planetary defense mission, called HERA, to the asteroid Dydimos aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Likewise, a scientific mission currently being integrated will be launched at the end of 2025.
In addition, it has specified that the satellites based on its Odaliss platform will be manufactured “intensively” in new facilities that the company is planning in the province of Alicante, and from where they will be marketed globally.
