A Defence Trailblazer collaborative project with Space Machines Company and the University of Adelaide’s AI for Space Group has reached a major milestone, building Australia’s first orbital robotics testbed at its state-of-the-art space simulation facilities. Located in the EXTERRES (Extraterrestrial Environmental Simulation) Laboratory at the university’s Roseworthy Campus, the proximity operations testbed will accelerate the project goal of developing space-borne perception algorithms for Space Machines Company’s MAITRI mission, scheduled for launch in late 2026.
The testbed realistically emulates space flight dynamics through a combination of robotic manipulation, lighting and display simulation, tight environmental control and sensor instrumentation, with motion-tracking to monitor each movement.
The testbed will be utilised to design and test software that will be deployed onboard the Australian Space Agency-backed MAITRI mission to track real satellites and space debris. The AI-based algorithms have been developed by the AI for Space Group, led by Professor Tat-Jun (TJ) Chin, Defence Trailblazer Co-Theme Lead for Defence Space Technologies.
These algorithms are critical for Space domain awareness (SDA), which includes predicting the behaviour of objects in the Space environment and determining threats.
The algorithms will be rigorously tested for object detection, tracking, semantic segmentation and pose estimation. A key advantage of the ground-based testbed is that it can expand the breadth of testing scenarios without requiring data from Space missions, a significant step towards ensuring the safety of future operations.
“Using the testbed to simulate mission conditions for the software is crucial to ensuring reliability of the algorithms in the real Space environment,” said University of Adelaide researcher Mohsi Jawaid. “With this comprehensive testing, we can confidently and responsibly claim mission readiness for our AI solutions.”
“This testbed represents a major milestone in the advancement of space-borne perception and intelligence for a range of proximity operations and servicing applications, capabilities essential for safeguarding the growing volume of on-orbit Space assets,” said Mark Ramsay, Space Machines Company CCO and project lead. “We’re working with Defence Trailblazer to address this critical gap in Australia and bolster sovereign space capabilities.”
The project, which also involves Scarlet Lab, a SmartSat CRC initiative; and Space Control STC at Defence Science Technology Group, is supported by funding from Defence Trailblazer’s Accelerating Sovereign Industrial Capabilities (ASIC) program.
“This project represents a focal point for Australian Space research, and we are excited to see the project enter its testing phase,” said Dr Margaret Law, General Manager – Technology Development & Acceleration at Defence Trailblazer. “The new orbital testbed is filling a technical gap in ground-based testing for Space missions, and will have tangible benefits for sovereign Space capabilities.”
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