The multiyear flight demonstration of FAME is expected to begin with an initial set of six spacecraft this summer.
Irish space-tech start-up Ubotica will offer its onboard AI systems in partnering with NASA on a mission to demonstrate autonomous intelligent satellite networks.
The ‘flight demonstration of federated autonomous measurement’ (FAME) mission is being run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and will also see participation from UK satellite provision company Open Cosmos.
FAME aims to observe Earth by linking “more than 50 spacecraft from a wide range of operators in the largest autonomous satellite operations test ever attempted”, according to the three collaborators.
The mission will use satellites equipped with Ubotica’s onboard AI to monitor, identify and ‘understand’ Earth events such as wildfires, rogue ships or volcanic activity in real time and “act immediately in orbit, capturing additional data and triggering follow-on observations without waiting for ground analysis”.
