A $1 89m living lab set to help fireproof Noosa | Sunshine Coast Daily sunshinecoastdaily.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sunshinecoastdaily.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Spotting bushfires from space
NOAA Satellite images of the 2019 bushfires in Australia. Credit: Wikimedia commons.
Storm-chasing drones, smart water bombers, and a constellation of bushfire-spotting satellites could be the key to reducing Australia’s devastating bushfire toll.
Imagine lightning strikes a tree in a deep, dry valley. A satellite equipped with infrared sensors detects it within minutes and notifies a drone. The camera-equipped drone zips to the site, and the blaze is confirmed (since satellites can have high rates of false alarms).
Then a C-130 plane, flying high and safe overhead, drops a water-carrying glider with an automated guidance system over the fire, putting it out before it can become a devastating bushfire.
Space Machines Company, an Australian in-space transportation provider, has signed a deal with
Fireball International to deploy its bushfire detection satellite into its final orbit on board Space Machines Company’s orbital transport, Optimus-1, in 2022. The company announced the deal on Tuesday. This is Space Machines’ first customer agreement.
This agreement aims to strengthen Australia’s defense against extreme weather events, and it is another example of the developing space market in Australia. The Space Machines orbital transport vehicle Optimus-1 for this mission will be launched by Australian launch company
“We are proud to enable this vital and pioneering Australian space technology deployment. The fact that three Australian companies are joining to accomplish this vital mission is evidence of a growing sovereign industrial capability in space technology in our country,” Space Machines Company founder and CEO Rajat Kulshrestha said in a statement.
Australian Space Taxi Can Detect Bushfires Within 3 Minutes
Three Australian space companies have united to launch a bushfire satellite into space inside a space taxi with the key mission to detect and track bushfires. The technology, which is the work of Queensland-based company Fireball International, can detect and report on bushfires less than three minutes after they start.
It provides automated bushfire detection and tracking by analysing images from sensors in real-time and sends notifications and maps to emergency responders after detecting a fire.
“This is an Australian-built taxi, which will bring an Australian-built satellite which looks for fires and has a national interest, which is launched by an Australian-built rocket and from an Australian spaceport in Queensland,” Fireball International chief executive Christoper Tylor told InnovationAus.
Fireball International co-founder and chief executive officer Christopher Tylor said having Australian-based launch and in-space transport capabilities were a significant benefit for their business. Not having to look overseas for launch and in-space transport capabilities reduces cost and complexity for Fireball International, which translates to better fire protection at a lower cost for Australia. The Optimus-1 transporter will launch Fireball International’s bushfire detection satellite. Space Machines Company founder and chief executive officer Rajat Kulshrestha said the deal would prove an important step in strengthening the country s defence against extreme weather events. We are proud to enable this vital and pioneering Australian space technology deployment, Mr Kulshrestha said.