The first Earth observation satellite with artificial intelligence (AI), ɸ-sat-1, has its launch date rescheduled to August 17th, 2020. The repeatedly postponed dates were due to weather conditions in Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Arianespace’s Vega flight VV16 will carry 53 satellites on its new dispenser, the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS), including Dubbed ɸ-sat or ɸ-sat-1.

ɸ-sat-1 (Phi-sat-1) is an enrichment of the 2017 Copernicus Masters winner, Federated Satellite Systems mission (FSSCat). Due to the extensive amount of data from the Copernicus program and its Sentinel satellites, there are many different business sectors opportunities, and the competition looks for new service ideas, business concepts, products, and applications for Earth observation satellite data.

FSSCat, developed by a consortium of European companies and institutes, was conceived by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Spain, and the Estonian start-up Golbriak Space OÜ. The mission formed by a constellation of two shoebox-sized CubeSats will collect an enormous amount of measurement data, for example, soil moisture, sea-ice extent, and sea-ice thickness, providing complementary data to the Sentinel missions.

The technology used onboard Phi-Sat-1 relies on the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 computer vision (CV) and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) COTS VPU. The 12 vectors cores provide high-performance computing within a low power envelope.

The high-quality dual microwave and hyperspectral camera will collect terabytes of Earth’s images in the visible, near-infrared, and thermal-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. That will enable scientists to monitor vegetation and water quality changes, detect urban heat islands, and accomplish experiments on the role of evapotranspiration in climate change, which will improve farming, water management, as well as daily life. It will also enhance maritime safety by automating ice observation satellite data.

Due to the clouds, some of the data collected from the Copernicus Land and Marine Environment services aren’t suitable for analysis. Using the AI chip, Phi-sat-1 has its own brain to process the data onboard, filtering the images, to avoid down streaming unsuitable data back to Earth. Therefore, Phi-sat-1 handles the data more efficiently, and consequently, the delivery is also more efficient, reaching the user timely.

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, says that ɸ-sat-1 combines artificial intelligence with innovative Earth observation CubeSat technology in an experiment that will test new technologies and lower the cost of space missions. It is crucial to open up to new opportunities in the fast-developing domain of Earth observation, providing tailored information for customized services. ESA is also eager to gain experience on how this combination of technologies could eventually be used in larger-scale operational spacecraft.

The ɸ-sat-1 launch will be the first to show how artificial intelligence in orbit can boost the efficiency of sending Earth observation data back to Earth. The use of new technology and cross-disciplinary cooperation, putting together satellite data and digital technology (AI and blockchain), will be beneficial for business, industry, and science.

The launch will be available on ESA Web TV.

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This article was written by Juliane Verissímo - Marketing Department of VisionSpace

Phi-sat-1 and its AI chip