A consortium led by Space Machines Company (SMC) has been awarded $2.9 million in Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) grant funding from the Australian Government.
"Space security demands hardware that can evolve as fast as the threat. This project gives us the generative design and manufacturing capability to move from requirement to flight-ready structure in a fraction of the time, and repeat that process at scale as the mission changes," SMC, CEO and Co-Founder, Rajat Kulshrestha, stated.
Combined with contributions from the project partners, the total investment reaches $6 million, directed at fundamentally changing how spacecraft are designed and built in Australia.
“This partnership with Space Machines Company and UTS shows how the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility is turning research capability into applied outcomes for industry," Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility Chair, and Bradfield Development Authority CEO, Ken Morrison, highlighted.
"By bringing together business, university expertise and government in Bradfield City, we’re creating the right conditions for advanced industry and space technologies to be developed, tested and scaled here in Australia."
The two-year project, titled Optimised Generative AI Design for Mass-Manufacturable Spacecraft, brings together SMC, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility (AMRF) at Bradfield City in Western Sydney, and Sydney-based design and engineering firm Fordyno.
“UTS is proud to be working with our partners on this project at the nexus of artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing to deliver world-leading research for the space industry," University of Technology Sydney, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Kate McGrath, said.
"Most importantly, we bring these together with a collaborative and commercial mindset to address the big challenges faced by our partners and their industries, and translate research into real-world outcomes.”
Together, the partners will develop a machine learning system capable of generating optimal spacecraft structures in direct response to shifting design requirements. This will be coupled with additive manufacturing and robotic assembly processes.
The work will address a challenge that has long constrained the space industry. Engineering software can model spacecraft in extraordinary detail, but sophistication has a cost: teams spend years refining virtual designs before committing to manufacture, only to discover problems the moment they start building.
For SMC, targeting production of 20+ Optimus Viper vehicles annually from its Australian facilities, closing that gap is a manufacturing necessity.
The final milestone is the delivery of at least one flight-qualified Optimus Viper primary structure, validated to launch standards and ready for orbital deployment.
That outcome will mark the point at which the project's research outputs become directly applicable to SMC's production plans: a commercial version of the generative design software, validated manufacturing procedures, and a proven path from requirement to flight-ready hardware in weeks, not months.
The generative design application will be developed by UTS under the supervision of Zhen (Jeff) Luo, Leader of the Advanced Metacomposite Materials and Structures group.
His team provide experience in topology optimisation to a problem that has not previously been solved at the level of complete spacecraft structures.
While generative design has been applied to individual aerospace components, the multi-physics complexity of a full spacecraft primary structure, carrying launch loads, managing thermal cycles, and accommodating constantly evolving payload and mission requirements, has until now resisted it.
Physical manufacture of the prototype structures will take place at the AMRF’s advanced facility at Bradfield City, a NSW Government-funded centre whose machinery and capabilities are designed specifically for the kind of rapid, iterative production the project demands.
The team will cycle through up to five build-test-iterate rounds once the AI system is generating structures, with the target of completing each cycle from updated requirement to tested hardware within three weeks.
Fordyno, a Sydney-based engineering services firm, will bring structural analysis, design-for-manufacture experience and hands-on fabrication experience to the project.
Its role spans the translation of AI-generated structural concepts into manufacturable designs. For Fordyno, the project will also mark an entry into the space sector, extending a practice built on solving demanding manufacturing challenges across other industries.
“Fordyno is honoured to join Space Machines Company in the ‘Optimised Generative AI Design for Mass-Manufacturable Spacecraft’ program. This initiative represents an exciting opportunity to combine cutting-edge generative AI with advanced engineering to transform how spacecraft are designed and manufactured," Fordyno, Managing Director, Chunhua Wang, said.
The project builds on work already underway at UTS Tech Lab in Botany, where SMC currently manufactures Optimus Viper spacecraft. It extends the collaboration between SMC and UTS.
The generative design algorithms developed are expected to carry intellectual property value well beyond the space sector. Any complex manufacturing environment where requirements evolve at pace stands to benefit.
This project has received grant funding from the Australian Government.