AI and moon rescue snare space grants

A system that could help locate and rescue astronauts stranded in remote areas on the moon, and a spacecraft with world-leading AI capabilities have received South Australian grant funding.

Two local companies – Safety from Space and AICRAFT – have each secured $100,000 in funding from the inaugural South Australian Space Collaboration and Innovation Fund.

Safety from Space will receive funding for its Lunar Search and Rescue (LunaSAR) project which will trial satellite communications (SATCOM) capabilities for future astronaut search and rescue operations on the Moon.

A collaboration with NASA, the Mars Society, SmartSat CRC, UniSA and Flinders University, the system aims to provide a lighter weight, longer battery life radio beacon with greater reliability than current devices.

Safety from Space founder Mark Rice said: “Our collaboration with NASA has put Australia at the forefront of two-way communications for search and rescue.”

AICRAFT’s ‘Leoflect’ project will create a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload that will be lighter and smaller than others on the market.

It will use advanced AI models to deliver power-efficient, high-speed data processing and analysis on orbit.

A partnership with India’s Guerin Technologies, the project will significantly enhance available SAR satellite capabilities.

AICRAFT chief executive officer Tony Scoleri said: “We have developed strong relationships with the Indian space ecosystem (to) deliver the most compact SAR antenna and most compact, low-power onboard computer on the market.”

Picture: L-R Mark Rice, Safety from Space founder and Tony Scoleri, AICRAFT CEO.