Gilmour Space Technologies has ventured into a partnership with Macquarie University’s Australian Astronomical Optics to develop a new sovereign space technology that will launch in 2023.
As part of the collaboration, technical specialists from AAO Macquarie will develop and deliver a thermal camera payload, which will be mounted to a Gilmour Space satellite set to launch in late 2023.
Shaun Kenyon, the program manager for satellites at Gilmour Space, said the partnership will result in a new Australian-made thermal space imager that could be used in a wide array of applications, such as water quality monitoring, bushfire, detection, and weather monitoring.
“The agreement marks an exciting new chapter for the AAO, as our team of experts can expand their skills and remits to support the growing interest in space exploration,” said Lee Spitler, project lead from AAO Macquarie.
Data collected from the thermal camera payload will lead to further exploration of a new approach to collecting imaging data, Spitler explained.
The sovereign space mission is set to fly an all-Australian payload sensor suite and kickstart Macquarie’s participation in the NewSpace era of agile space technology development, Gilmour said in a media statement.
Gilmour Space Technologies is one of Australia’s NewSpace companies and is a leading venture-backed manufacturer of launch vehicles and satellite platforms.
Meanwhile, Macquarie is renowned for its ground-based precision instrumentation for telescopes.
The latest partnership with Gilmour marks Macquarie’s efforts to expand to non-astronomy applications in space.
