London, 15 June 2023.- HEO Robotics, an Australian robotics company providing satellite-to-satellite imagery and analytics, launched their Holmes Imager as a hosted payload aboard Turion’s Droid-1 into space aboard a SpaceX rocket at 7:35 am AET from Vandenberg on the 12th of June.
The Holmes Imager is the world’s first commercial camera dedicated to non-Earth imaging (NEI). The Holmes Imager serves to empower HEO Inspect. HEO Inspect is an in-orbit satellite inspection software platform that enables NEI and delivers intelligence on space objects. HEO Inspect will process and analyse Holmes’ captured data, enabling customers to explore and interpret space objects with great clarity and accuracy.
Since its launch in August 2022, HEO Inspect has been used by governments, defence, and commercial industry to visually monitor space objects. The Holmes Imager will increase HEO’s Robotics’ coverage in space by providing satellites with a new capability while helping to develop solutions for customers to better understand space assets and their environment through non-Earth images.
The Holmes imager will enable HEO Inspect to reduce the time from tasking to data download and extend space-based imaging operations with HEO Robotics owned and operated sensors. It will also conduct experiments to identify limitations and potential areas for improvement in NEI.
“We are thrilled to put an Australian manufactured camera in space and continue on our mission of making space transparent. We need high-quality data to make evidence-based decisions,” said Will Crowe, CEO at HEO Robotics. “As a world-first, the Holmes Imagers will provide improved data to HEO Inspect so our customers have access to non-Earth imaging and analytics on the space objects that matter to them.”
The imager has been entirely manufactured in Australia. HEO Robotics has partnered with Additive Engineering, The Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), The Australian National University, Emax Engineering, Infinity Avionics, and Ironbox Engineering.
