Every few years NASA launches a new hypersonic spacecraft that defies the laws of physics with a more modern jet engine, more fuel efficiency and lighter materials. For example, the X-43A hypersonic research aircraft can fly at Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, and has made breakthroughs in future applications such as hypersonic missiles and commercial aircraft that can break the sound barrier.
NASA has already developed several such aircraft, the most famous of which is the X-15, which flew in the 1960s and held its record until 2004.
Israeli video sensor solutions for critical system developers Odysight.ai (OTC: ODYS), headquartered in Ramat Gan and managed by CEO Yehu Ofer, Brig. The Israeli Air Force (res.) general will integrate one of his visualization systems into one of NASA’s future aerospace vehicles.
Odysight’s AI-driven predictive maintenance (PdM) and condition-based monitoring (CBM) systems will be integrated into several aviation flight trials in the coming months, which will investigate their operations in high-speed and harsh environments. If there are no unexpected developments, commercial orders worth millions of dollars will begin next year.
NASA is interested in including Odysight cameras inside the plane, in order to image the many integrated components at any given moment – such as telescopes, solar panels and drills – and monitor any possible damage to them during takeoff. Often, the aircraft’s payload or parts of it are damaged during launch, without the ground crew knowing about it, and this is only discovered in space or upon return to Earth.
Selected twice by NASA.
Odysight cameras, currently installed on IAF helicopters and aircraft to monitor moving parts, are designed to withstand extreme conditions – from -273 degrees Celsius to -180 degrees Celsius, strong vibrations, atmospheric pressure and radiation.
The cameras have been installed in the past on NASA spacecraft, and Odysight has received a small number of requests to install its systems on the shuttle’s refueling arm for satellites in space. This was an important development in the manned mission to Mars while demonstrating the feasibility of in-space refueling, which could support NASA’s efforts to send spacecraft to distant planets.
“This is an exceptional situation, as far as I know,” Inbal Chris, a member of the board of directors of Odysight.ai and head of innovation at the Systems, Missiles and Space division of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), who managed the development of the Arrow 3 project, tells Globes. “An Israeli company was selected twice by NASA in different tenders as the sole supplier.”
Among the Israeli companies that have succeeded in offering products to NASA is StemRad, whose space jacket, which protects against particle radiation during strong solar storms, was sent on the first Artemis mission into space two years ago.
Israeli agricultural sensor company CropX has also been selected by NASA to conduct an experiment that will allow data from sensors to be combined with information collected from NASA satellites in Arizona, and to produce insights for farmers in irrigation and fertilizer management.
In the 1960s, NASA also benefited from the skills of Effie Arazi, later founder of Scitex. He was a partner in developing satellite equipment and in building the television camera that broadcast images of the first moon landing in 1969.
I looked up the company on the internet
NASA found Odyssite by pure chance. One of the company’s founders, Professor Benad Goldwasser, tells Globes, “NASA decided to develop a shuttle to refuel satellites in outer space. Each satellite costs $200 million, and when it cannot be moved, it becomes scrap. Second, on the day that When the agency wanted to reach Mars, it was important for it to carry out refueling missions in outer space, where temperatures can reach 147 degrees below zero. NASA wanted a sturdy camera that could be placed in a refueling tube, with a diameter not exceeding 4 mm. NASA searched the Internet – until it came across an Israeli company from Omer that announced in 2012 that it had managed to develop the smallest video camera in the world, with a diameter of 1.2 mm,” Goldwasser recounts.
The company based in Omar was Medigus, which generally developed medical cameras, but it went through turmoil and had difficulty getting back on its feet. Goldwasser, who was a serial entrepreneur in medical device startups, understood the business potential of small, rugged cameras that had until then been used to monitor very small movements during back surgery. He recalls, “NASA asked the company: Can your camera survive in space? The answer was we don’t know. But during two experiments in 2015 and 2018, it was proven that the camera transmits a high-quality image from space. It is able to stay there for five days.”
Goldwasser, a urologist who was the youngest ever head of urology at an Israeli hospital, was a co-founder of several medical startups that were sold. NASA’s success with the camera convinced clients such as Westinghouse and Rolls Royce to acquire Medigus’ camera business and turn it into ScoutCam, which then changed its name to Odysight, when it began focusing on the aerospace industry. “The medical world no longer interested us,” Goldwasser recalls. “I knew that these cameras had many other applications and decided to continue researching what we could do with them.” Medigus no longer has any shares in the company.
To warn in advance of failure
During the search operations, Gullwasser met Brig. Gen. (Res.) Jacob Portman, who served as head of the Israeli Air Equipment Department. Portman, who was responsible for, among other things, aircraft maintenance, understood the potential of cameras used in planes, helicopters and drones, where identifying problems immediately could save unnecessary maintenance, time and money, and warn of failure before it happens. Dean. Gen. (res.) Yehu Ofer, former commander of Sde Dov Air Base, who also served as IDF attaché in Italy and a senior executive at Elbit Systems for nearly a decade, has been appointed CEO. “The wisdom is not only in the cameras, but in the learning system, which is based on artificial intelligence and algorithms and is able to recognize patterns,” Ofer says.
Odysight, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange over-the-counter and is part of the spin-off legacy it inherited from Medigus, earlier this week reported revenue of $2.7 million for the first nine months of 2024, more than double its $1.08 million. dollars during the corresponding period of 2023. The net loss increased slightly from $8.1 million in the corresponding period of 2023 to $8.2 million this year. The company also reported a $16 million order backlog, including a NASA order, an Apache attack helicopter prototype for the Israeli Air Force, and a maintenance system for a defense company that will be integrated into the IAF’s upgraded Seahawk helicopters; And orders from the French aircraft engine manufacturer Safran. In July, the company raised $10.3 million from private investors, including Murray Arkin.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 19, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
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