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Completed TRL 5 (started at 3, targeting 5)
The Autonomous Observation Challenge No. 1 focused on discovering solutions for integrated, compact precision pointing systems for small spacecraft that can be used to autonomously detect, locate, track, and collect data on transient terrestrial events, such as aerosol dispersion in the atmosphere or maintain line of sight communication with an object on the lunar surface. Winners were selected October 1, 2021 and were notified to begin building their payloads by October 7, 2021. Each of the three winners received $500,000 to develop their payloads and prepare them for suborbital flight The three winners were: - The Bronco Space Club at Cal Poly Pomona (Pomona, CA): The Bronco Ember technology is designed to autonomously detect, track, and log nascent wildfires or similar phenomena. Bronco Ember consists of a custom two degrees of freedom (2DOF) precision pointing system and edge computing system for onboard artificial intelligence / machine-learning acceleration. This flight demonstration will be observed in the short-wave-infrared (SWIR) wavelength range. - Orion Labs LLC (Nunn, CO): We will demonstrate the capabilities of classical, quantum and hybrid machine learning onboard a CubeSat. With our array of sensors, we are able to evaluate quantum/classical machine learning approaches on Earth observation tasks, including atmospheric gravity wave measurements or multispectral image classification and segmentation. We will demonstrate how on-board data processing and machine learning result in reduced downlink bandwidth. - Texas A&M SEAK Lab (College Station, TX): Using visible and infrared cameras, our payload automatically identifies and classifies plumes in Earth?s atmosphere using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). It then actively tracks identified plumes and saves images for operator analysis. In July and August 2022, the three winners completed their suborbital flights, and will have opportunity for re-flights in the near future.
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