An Australian software engineer says “complex” new space technology, of which she is among the first in the world to work with, will help manage the huge volume of objects orbiting in space.
Samantha Kirkwood, 24, is employed as a research and development engineer with an Australian space industry startup.
“We can actually take diagnostic images of things in orbit, from orbit, so we have cameras that are orbiting around Earth,” she said.
“From the images, we can work out of there is damage to satellites or if everything up there is working as it should be.”
Satellites watching satellites
Ms Kirkwood’s role is very new.
Her Sydney-based employer’s satellite software inspection technology only became operational in August 2022.
“We’re the first private company in the world to provide in-orbit inspection commercially,” High Earth Orbit (HEO) Robotics co-founder and chief executive Dr Will Crowe said.
The company uses its software with satellites already in orbit and now has access to a network of 35 high-quality cameras in space.
Ms Kirkwood said having the capacity to assess orbiting satellites, as well as space junk and unknown space objects, was becoming increasingly important.
“A lot of people don’t realise how much we do rely on the satellites that are in space — GPS satellites and weather analysis for example — and there are more and more satellites going into orbit,” she said.
“Things in orbit are quite hard to troubleshoot when they are hundreds of kilometres above your head and travelling very quickly.”
“There are thousands upon thousands of pieces of space junk in orbit and occasionally bits of debris can collide with operational satellites as well.”
Capturing in-orbit images
The cameras capture “fly-by” images of objects and satellites, including the International Space Station (ISS) as they zip past in nanoseconds.
Ms Kirkwood said it was a “complex” task.
“The satellites are travelling at a speed of about 7 kilometres a second, relative to Earth, so it’s very, very fast, and because we are imaging from other satellites, that’s up to a relative speed of 15 kilometres a second,” she said.
“We also take photos from about 100 kilometres away … so things are moving very fast and quite far away and we need to tell our cameras exactly where to point.
“There’s a lot of modelling that goes into that and some software we have built to do all those calculations for us.
“It’s a really great feeling when we do all that work and then get a fantastic picture of the International Space Station, for example.”
(Supplied: HEO Robotics)
Building from the ground up
Ms Kirkwood grew up on the Mid North Coast of NSW with dreams of becoming an astronaut.
She discovered her passion for science and space while at the Camden Haven High School, near her hometown of Laurieton.
“I remember advice I got in high school, that the job that you can have in 10 years doesn’t exist right now,” she said.
“It’s hard to imagine when you’re a teenager, but it’s definitely true.”
Ms Kirkwood graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Advanced Science (Physics) and Bachelor of Computer Science and also did an honours project in astrophysics.
She said it was “very exciting” to now be part of the small but growing space industry in Australia.
“We only established the Australian Space Agency here in 2018,” she said.
“We are really building this industry here from the ground up at the moment.”
HEO Robotics has also been steadily expanding and now employs 20 people, the majority in Australia with a small team in the UK and US.
Space dreams
Meanwhile, Ms Kirkwood hasn’t lost her dream of one day travelling to space.
She said Australia had “exciting plans” to be involved in NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts and send the first female astronaut to the moon.
“Like many people, I would love to go to space, so we will see where that road goes for me,” she said.
“It’s definitely no easy feat to become an astronaut … a far-out dream of mine, but we’ll see.”
