Microsoft and HPE bring the power of Edge AI and Azure to the International Space Station

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The International Space Station (ISS) is a one-of-a-kind laboratory that enables research and technology development not possible on Earth. However, the latency and bandwidth limitations inherent in space communications, combined with a lack of onboard processing power, inhibits the speed of discovery for astronauts and scientists.

That’s why Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Microsoft collaborated with NASA to create the Spaceborne Computer-2 (SBC-2). A high-performance computing (HPC) system the size of a small microwave, it was built from commercial off the shelf (COTS) components and runs on open source software.

Composed of an HPE Edgeline Converged Edge system and an HPE ProLiant DL360 Server, the new system delivers twice the compute power of its predecessor, the SBC-1, and enables NASA to take advantage of edge computing to run artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning (ML) in space. In addition to expanded processing capabilities, the new system also had to be rugged enough to survive the launch into space. That’s why the SBC-2 is built on the same edge computing technologies targeted for harsh, remote environments on Earth—such as oil and gas refineries, manufacturing plants, and defense missions.

The capability to run AI/ML software in orbit reduces the amount of raw data that needs be transmitted back to Earth for analysis, enabling researchers to perform in-space data processing for faster results. The SBC-2 is powerful enough to analyze data at the source of collection, in space, reducing the amount of data that has to be transmitted to Earth and freeing up that stream for even more scientific experiments.

However, when lengthier computations need to be sent back down to earth, the SBC-2 is hampered by a limit of two hours of bandwidth per week with a maximum download speed of 250 KB per second. That’s less than 2 GB a week, not even enough to download a movie.

That’s where bursting to the Azure cloud comes into play. The SCB-2 can automatically burst down into the expansive global Azure cloud network for extra capacity, enabling scientists anywhere in the world to access millions of computers running in parallel and linked by the 165,000 miles of fiber-optic cables that connect Azure data centers across 65 regions around the globe.

In addition, the use of open source software makes it easier for developers to build programs that can run in the space station. And because the SBC-2 has an Azure connection with the same open source tools and languages as the computers on Earth, developers don’t need specialized space engineering or rocket scientist skills to build applications for the ISS.

The results are amazing. For example, one earthbound researcher was concerned that it would take months to get her data from the space station. The SCB-2 was able to process her data set in just 6 minutes, compress it, and download a file that was 20,000 times smaller.

Learn more about this incredible launch:

• View the HPE space timeline.
• Read the Microsoft article. 
• Watch the video: Genomics testing on the ISS with HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 and Azure  
• Watch the live HPE event leading up to launch of HPE Spaceborne Computer-2

Watch the StorageReview podcast: HPE Spaceborne Computer-2, Supercomputing in Space