Nichols Martin
NASA is getting help from industry to more quickly process data from the International Space Station via edge computing and plans to use the technology for Mars exploration in the future, Fedscoop reported Friday.
The agency sees edge computing’s potential to accelerate the analysis of space-based data in missions under the Artemis program, which aims to have human astronauts directly explore the moon and eventually Mars.
Howard Boville, senior vice president of cloud platform at IBM, said at FedScoop’s Think Gov 2021 event that a containerized, analytic code can speed up computing activities on ISS-gathered data. IBM is among NASA’s industry partners for edge computing implementation.
“Edge computing has eliminated the need to move massive data at the International Space Station from a DNA sequencing project,” he said.
Conceptually, edge computing brings processing activities closer to the edge where data is being gathered.
