HyperScout 2 Flight Model ready for South Australia’s Kanyini mission

We speak with Nick Manser, Satellite Systems Engineer at SmartSat CRC and Dr Marco Esposito is Managing Director at cosine Remote Sensing.

Nick joined the SmartSat team at the beginning of 2022 to work on the South Australian Space Mission satellite, Kanyini. Previously, Nick has over 12 years’ experience working at Defence Science and Technology (DST), first as a Computer Scientist and then as a Cyber Security Specialist. Nick holds a Bachelor of Computer and Information Science from Uni SA and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Adelaide.

SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and cosine recently announced that the hyperspectral imaging camera, HyperScout 2 Flight Model instrument, will be onboard the South Australia state satellite and is ready to be integrated into the spacecraft. HyperScout 2 will be launched into space on board the satellite Kanyini, a 6U CubeSat, as part of the SA Space Services Mission and will provide critical data to government and non-government agencies.

The launch of the satellite is part of the South Australia Space Sector Strategy 2030 and is Australia’s first state-based satellite. The HyperScout 2 is a three-in-one instrument that combines hyperspectral and thermal imaging with high-level data processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities. It provides hyperspectral imaging in the visible and near infrared to analyze the composition of the Earth, along with three thermal infrared bands to retrieve the temperature distribution, boosting and improving the number of Earth Observation applications cosine’s customers can benefit from.

The South Australian Government is investing $6.5M in the SA Space Services Mission. The SmartSat CRC is leading the mission and application prototyping, with Adelaide-based satellite manufacturing company Inovor Technologies designing and building the satellite and South Australian space company Myriota contracted for the Internet of Things (IoT) space services. Data collected from the project is intended to support informed decision making in the areas of water usage, climate policy and disaster management.

cosine made several design changes to HyperScout 2 at the beginning of the project, in order to adapt the instrument to the reduced dimensions and volume available on the Kanyini satellite. The efforts of the team of experts at cosine made it possible to perform all the necessary design changes, as well as to assemble the instrument, characterize its performance and test its resistance to environmental conditions in just 8 months. cosine delivered the Engineering Model to SmartSat within 3 months of project kick-off. Now the Proto-Flight Model is ready for the final integration at spacecraft level.

SmartSat CRC has investigated the feasibility of utilizing Kanyini’s hyperspectral data for crop classification as part of the UK/AUS Space Bridge collaboration for the research project Advancing remote sensing benefits to agriculture through hyperspectral processing. Other research groups are considering applications of the AI module of the HyperScout 2 onboard Kanyini for bushfire smoke detection, monitoring water quality and advanced analytics for defence and security.

Marco completed his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Naples, specializing in airborne remote sensing for air quality and land management. Having worked on various aerospace projects in Naples, most recently as coordinator of the Environmental Research Aircraft Lab of the Italian National Research Council, Marco moved to the Netherlands to work at cosine.

Marco spent almost 4 years at ESA ESTEC as calibration engineer first, in the science department working on EUV to IR sensors calibration, and then as performance engineer in the Earth Observation department working on Sentinel 5 Precuror spectrometer TROPOMI.

Marco has been involved in a variety of research and development activities at cosine, all focusing on the miniaturization of optical instruments for Earth Observation and miniaturized suites of instruments for planetary exploration.

Having gained experience as system and performance engineer, project manager, program manager and team leader at cosine, Marco became managing director of cosine Remote Sensing as well as of coseno, the italian branch of cosine.

Marco has led the development, demonstration in orbit and commercialization of the HyperScout® product series, the first ever miniaturized imager able to connect hyperspectral, thermal imaging and artificial intelligence techniques in one compact product for the Earth Observation market.

Recorded 10 October 2022. #cosine  #hyperscout  #smartsat  #space  #cubesat  #southaustralia #earthobservation  #kanyini

For more information visit
https://www.cosine.nl/cases/hyperscou…
https://www.saspacemission.com.au/