A selection of projects funded through the SmartSat New South Wales (NSW) Node were front-and-centre at the Australian Space Summit in Sydney last week. Over half a dozen of the projects being funded by the NSW Nodes showcased products and technologies developed through their research on the Investment NSW stand. Industry partners represented included:

• Start-up companies Mawson Rovers and Sprial Blue, who worked together on heat management solution for onboard ‘space edge’ computer chips in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of Sydney;
• Sperospace, who are developing a novel control system for their space-capable robotic arm with The University of Technology Sydney;
• Extraterrestrial Power who are working with partners The University of New South Wales, and NewSouth Innovations on the fabrication of thin, radiation-tolerant silicon solar cells;
• Earth Observation experts Arlula who are working on automated instant high resolution imagery procurement; and
• Aurora Space Cluster member company Altum RF.

Also represented at the Summit was the Waratah Seed Mission, lead by Australian Space Awards 2023 Scientist of the Year winner, Professor Iver Cairns from The University of Sydney’s ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs, and Their Applications (CUAVA). The space-qualification mission will carry a number of SmartSat supported payloads and technologies, which you can find out more about here. With thanks to Investment NSW for allowing our partners to exhibit on their stand, the Australian Space Summit provided an opportunity for participating organisations to showcase their businesses and innovative offerings to the over 700 delegates in attendance.

In other Node news, the outcomes of the latest round of projects to be funded through the Victorian Node and Queensland Earth Observation Hub have been announced, and we congratulate the recipients for the following successful projects:

• A robust and scalable distributed data management tool for Earth Observation
  Partners: GeoNadir, TERN Australia and The University of Queensland
• A Digital tool for de-risking sorghum production decisions
  Partners: Pacific Seeds, The University of Queensland and The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
• A Starlink-based artificial intelligence edge system for farms in regional areas
  Partners: AgCloud Pty Ltd and La Trobe University
• AI Protected Onboard Processing for utilising real-time data insights in the mining sector
  Partners: FrontierSI, Deakin University, Esper Satellite Imagery, AMIRA, RMIT University, and x-RD

Andrew Beveridge
Chief Operating Officer