Cost-Effective Space Based Platforms for Bushfire Monitoring

Australia experiences some of the worst bushfires in the world. The consequences for life, property, flora and fauna are immense, with vast swathes of territory destroyed and financial losses in the billions. This paper describes work by a consortium of Australian universities in conjunction with NASA to develop concepts for low-cost space-based platforms for bushfire detection and tracking. The pathfinder mission concept pairs an advanced thermal imaging payload developed by NASA engineers with AI-based algorithms for on-board processing using commercially available hardware in a 12U CubeSat platform. The opportunity to leverage enabling technologies like optical interlinks for satellite-to-satellite communications provides a pathway to develop swarm capabilities and the concept is scalable to form a constellation to provide a needed bushfire detection and monitoring capability.