AI4Space: SnT Launches In-Space Machine Learning Experiment

On 12 June, SnT launched AI4Space, its first very own in-space experiment. Hosted on a Skykraft satellite, the SnT system departed from the Vandenberg Space Force Base onboard a SpaceX rocket. The host satellite is currently enroute to its final destination in Low Earth orbit, where it will be deployed and tested before kickstarting SnT-s experiment. Developed by a team of researchers in the Space Systems Engineering (SpaSys) and the Computer Vision, Imaging and Machine Intelligence (CVI2) research groups, AI4Space will test machine learning algorithms to detect temperature anomalies in satellite systems in a more advanced way than is currently done. Within this joint collaboration, SpaSys focused on hardware design, development and integration following the principles of lean management, and initiated the development of machine learning algorithms for anomaly detection and code deployment. The CVI2 group contributed its expertise in machine learning to train the anomaly detection algorithm, and deploy it on an edge device. The hardware, which has been mounted on the small satellite, consists in a 10 x 10 cm circuit board with sensors, resistors, infrared cameras to measure temperature and an onboard computer to process the algorithms.