ANT61 said the “strategic partnership” with both satellite insurance firm Sompo Japan and sister company Sompo Risk Management would allow it to bring its Beacon technology to the Asian market.
“With the Beacon, satellite operators can afford to be bolder with their future designs, knowing they have an additional layer of safety and security,” said ANT61 founder Mikhail Asavkin.
The Australian company successfully launched Beacon for the first time earlier this year from Sweden.
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The device travelled aboard the MAPHEUS 14-sounding rocket in February in an event live-streamed to the National Space Industry Hub.
Its mission was to test Beacon’s durability against extreme space conditions, which included flying at double the typical satellite launch acceleration.
The firm’s space missions manager, Mary Pillay, said, “It aims to demonstrate functionality under severe stress, collecting data on its journey. Additionally, there’s an attempt to transmit some of this data back to us.”
ANT61 hopes future clients will install Beacon onto their own satellites prior to launch.
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The unit can then perform satellite health checks in orbit, determining its position and communicating with the team on the ground in real-time.
It means if a satellite fails, Beacon will keep working, providing information on the root cause of the problem and allowing the team on the ground to improve their design.
It also significantly provides a backup communication system, allowing the operator to update software and recover from failure – effectively coming back from the dead.
The news comes after Japan became only the fifth nation to successfully land on the moon in January when its Slim spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface.
The Slim mission – or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon – aimed to land within just 100 metres of its target point, a sloped rim inside the 300-meter-wide Shioli crater.
Previous landings have traditionally aimed for a landing zone of several square kilometres.
Despite its success, Slim also made headlines for the team’s ability to revive the project after setbacks.
Slim initially hit the surface on its nose and in a position that meant its panels faced west and, therefore, away from the sun at that point.
The incident forced project leaders to run the device entirely on battery power before putting it into a first temporary hibernation when the charge hit 12 per cent.
Moon missions usually attempt to land early in the lunar day, when the sun rises from the east, giving two weeks of illumination before it sets in the west for two subsequent weeks of darkness.
When sunset occurred early on 31 January, the team were able to power it back up for a second time.
Slim sent back an early photo of its own bodged landing, taken by a baseball-sized robot called Sora-Q, which was successfully ejected moments before the touchdown.
Not only did Sora-Q move on the surface to take the photo, but a second rover, Lev-1, managed to hop.
The lander later incredibly survived a second two-week-long lunar night and sent back yet more fresh photos. It’s thought to have finally died in May.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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