Satellites have come a long way from their origins in the 1950s. Much like the phone in your pocket, they’re a lot smaller, cheaper, and faster to build than their forebears. The University of Melbourne is helping to lead the charge on nanosatellite development with its Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpiRIT) spacecraft.
- SpIRIT is a CubeSat, a type of nanosatellite built using 10cm cube units. Six of these units feature in the SpIRIT design, making it roughly the size of a shoebox and just 11.5kg in weight.
- SpIRIT will fly with cameras, guidance systems, communications antennae, artificial intelligence computers, and a miniature electric propulsion system. Many of these features will operate in orbit for the first time.
- To develop the satellite, the University of Melbourne led an all-Australian consortium.
- In December 2022, the University of Melbourne signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Leonardo Australia to commercialise SpIRIT’s thermal management technology.
- SpIRIT will launch in late 2023 with ISISPACE on SpaceX’s Transporter-9. It will fly in low Earth orbit for 2 years, demonstrating the performance and endurance of the Australian-made technology on board.
Project Status
Current
Project outcomes and benefits
- ‘SpIRIT is an ambitious satellite for its class of weight,’ Project leader Professor Michele Trenti said.
- ‘One unique element is a powerful thermal control system with a Stirling-cycle cryocooler and deployable radiators, that will demonstrate in-orbit the ability to lower and precisely hold the temperature of advanced instrumentation.’
- ‘This technology is expected to open the opportunity for nanosatellites to fly remote sensing instruments that so far have been restricted to spacecraft ten times heavier, and more expensive.’
- Alongside the local technology, SpIRIT will become the first Australian satellite to carry a foreign agency payload: the Italian Space Agency’s HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites – Scientific Pathfinder).
- ‘This a capability that has so far been restricted to heavier and more expensive satellites,’ Professor Trenti said.
- ‘The HERMES instrument will also have a world-leading ability to time-stamp the arrival times of photons and their energy. This will enable novel studies into the nature of quantum gravity, by looking at whether the travel time of photons depends on their energy.’
- ‘Many of the technologies that will be proven on SpIRIT will have strong potential to be adopted as part of future constellations. Thus giving a large return on the initial R&D investment,’ Professor Trenti said.
- ‘A project like SpIRIT, underpinned by the drive to carry out innovative science, challenges and stimulates the Australian industry to innovate and develop new products in collaboration with universities and research institutions.’
Connection to the Agency's strategic framework
This project supports the Australian Space Agency’s objectives of:
- Opening doors internationally
- Increasing national capability
- Communications technologies and services
Key facts
- HERMES is an advanced X-ray detector that can localise high-energy gamma ray bursts in space. These are significant explosions that can occur when stars collide or die and become black holes.
Collaboration
- Inovor Technologies
- Neumann Space
- Nova Systems
- Sitael Australia
