“Innovation and reliability recognized”
Satellite company Telepix announced on the 19th that it has been featured in NASA’s “2024 Small Satellite Technology Trends Report.”
The report collects meaningful small satellite technology trends from around the world over the past year. It is a representative technical trend resource referred to by space agencies and companies worldwide, and the technology introduced in it is said to have been recognized for its innovation and reliability, according to the company.
The technology from Telepix included in the report is “Tetraflex.” It has been introduced as one of the high-performance onboard computing systems installed in satellites and space probes in the micro satellite avionics sector.
Tetraflex is an AI onboard processor for satellites that utilizes a high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU). It is the first space demonstration case to apply NVIDIA’s latest AI computing platform, “Jetson Orin NX.” It features 1024 CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) cores and demonstrates an AI processing performance of 100 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second).
Previously, satellites had to transmit all collected data to ground stations. However, with Tetraflex, AI-based edge computing can be utilized to process and select data in real-time within the satellite, then transmit it to the ground station, offering benefits such as reduced data transmission costs, rapid decision-making, and minimized transmission delays.
Tetraflex was successfully launched into space in August last year and completed performance testing in orbit. Its satellite image preprocessing algorithm operates smoothly even in extreme space environments, such as radiation and vacuum, completing satellite image preprocessing in 11 seconds.
This speed is 35 times faster than the previous system, which took over six minutes. The calculation results’ accuracy is also 100%, the same as when processed on Earth.
Telepix plans to expand its entry into the global satellite market based on Tetraflex’s technological capabilities. The company intends to develop AI-based satellite data analysis services and next-generation onboard computing systems. It also aims to pursue collaboration with global aerospace companies and research institutions to conduct AI edge computing-based next-generation space missions.
Cho Sung-ik, CEO of Telepix, stated, “Tetraflex is an innovative technology changing the satellite data processing method that relied entirely on limited ground station infrastructure,” and added, “Our inclusion in the NASA report shows that the space computing system developed by Telepix is globally recognized and operable in actual satellites.”