Kanyini satellite successfully completes critical testing milestone

The South Australian government’s satellite, Kanyini, has achieved a key milestone with the successful completion of its Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) ahead of the satellite’s mid-2024 launch. The critical ESS testing was conducted at the National Space Test Facility at the Australian National University in Canberra.

The Kanyini mission is a collaboration between the South Australian Government, the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre as mission lead, Adelaide-based commercial satellite manufacturer Inovor Technologies, and global IoT provider Myriota. Kanyini will be launched onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, later this year.

Manufactured entirely in Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen, Kanyini underwent two weeks of trials including exposing the satellite to extreme temperature variations, intense vibrations, and crushing vacuum conditions. The satellite remained fully operational throughout the extensive testing, passing the screening with flying colours.

“In reaching this milestone, Kanyini has already achieved one of our key goals for the mission – building the capacity of the Australian space industry and advancing the local expertise within the sector,” said Mission Director Peter Nikoloff, who is also a co-founder of Nova Group.

“The collaborative effort from the whole mission team, including SmartSat CRC and our partners Myriota and Inovor Technologies, as well as the support from the South Australian Government, has been outstanding up until now,” he added.

With Kanyini’s full System Integration Review also concluded, the successful completion of this testing now sees the wholly South Australian-based mission team embarking on the final manufacturing phase in readiness for launch.

The launch of Kanyini marks a pivotal step for the South Australian space sector. It will build space flight heritage for local satellite manufacturing, Internet of Things (IoT) and mission lead capabilities – a fundamental requirement for success in the global space sector.

Once in orbit, Kanyini’s dual IoT and imager payloads will deliver critical space data to be used by government and research institutions to expand their knowledge, particularly in relation to sustainability and climate impacts.

The enhanced onboard processing capability of the Hyperscout 2 imager, together with advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms, enables smart processing of data directly in orbit, supporting rapid decision-making for time-critical applications such as smoke detection for bushfires and other services.