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Astrome gets Rs 64 crore from the government's RDI Fund to build an AI powered spy satellite constellation from Bengaluru
The Technology Development Board will back half of a Rs 128 crore project to build 50 kg microsatellites that listen for radio signals from orbit, with AI on the ground to make sense of what they hear.
Bengaluru based space technology company Astrome Technologies has signed an agreement with the Technology Development Board (TDB), which sits under the Department of Science and Technology, for Rs 64.05 crore of support from the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund. The government announced the deal on 12 November through the Press Information Bureau, and it was reported the same day by DD News, IANS and Analytics India Magazine. The money comes as optionally convertible debt rather than a grant, and it covers about half of a project whose total cost is put at Rs 128.11 crore.
The project is a sovereign, space based AI enabled electronic intelligence constellation, or AI-ELINT, meant for national security use. Electronic intelligence means picking up and analysing radio and radar signals. According to the official release, Astrome will develop microsatellites of about 50 kg each and deploy them in stages as a constellation in low Earth orbit, with the aim of covering wider areas and observing chosen areas of interest more often as more satellites go up.
The system has three parts. The first is the ELINT payload carried by each satellite, which is meant to detect and analyse signals across a broad frequency range. The second is AI based software on the ground that processes and analyses the data the constellation sends down. The third is an inter satellite communication link, so that satellites can pass information to each other and work as one network instead of as separate spacecraft.
The funding is tied to taking these technologies from Technology Readiness Level 4 to Level 9, which is the jump from a lab level prototype to a system proven in real operation. The work covers technology development, engineering, integration, testing and validation. In the release, an authorised representative of Astrome said the TDB support would help the company accelerate the development and integration of the critical technologies in its AI enabled space based intelligence programme.
