Image courtesy Metaspectral
Metaspectral, a Canadian remote sensing software company, has been selected to join the Adelaide-based Venture Catalyst Space program.
Venture Catalyst Space is a commercial space accelerator and incubator program delivered by the University of South Australia’s Innovation & Collaboration Centre, funded by the South Australia Space Innovation Fund.
The Venture Catalyst Space program kicked off in March and runs until the end of August 2023.
“Our SaaS platform, Fusion, is ideal for real-time compression, transmission, and analysis of hyperspectral imagery from satellites,” said Francis Doumet, CEO and co-founder of Metaspectral.
“Hyperspectral imagery contains data from across the electromagnetic spectrum which, when analysed with artificial intelligence (AI), can be used to monitor time-sensitive environmental events on Earth such as wildfires, methane leaks, and more.
“The same data can also be leveraged by the defence industry for real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.”
The Australian Space Agency opened its headquarters in February 2020 in Adelaide, and it was announced in 2022 that Kanyini, the first satellite designed and constructed in South Australia is set to launch this year. Kanyini will include a hyperspectral imaging payload, and will be managed and operated by SmartSat CRC.
“Australia is at an exciting juncture in its commercial space journey,” said Migel Tissera, CTO and co-founder of Metaspectral, who earned both his PhD and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of South Australia.
“Australia is not only a place that is very dear to me, but also a place where I would like to see Metaspectral expand our operations. I believe that we can bring significant value to the nascent local commercial space market with the years of research behind our space-ready technology.
“Especially with Kanyini including a hyperspectral payload, there is potential for our software to immediately provide value and be used by SmartSat CRC for managing, distributing, and analysing the data.”
There are plans to deploy Metaspectral’s Fusion technology on the International Space Station to demonstrate real-time compression, streaming and analysis of hyperspectral data from low-Earth orbit.
The company has also been funded by the Canadian Space Agency to measure greenhouse gasses on the Earth’s surface using satellite hyperspectral data.
