

That constrained connectivity also can delay communicating critical decisions to the astronauts, who often have to wait for information to reach ground control and be analyzed there and then returned with the necessary insight.

By the time researchers got their data, it was too late to make any necessary tweaks to the collection process or to react to any surprises that might pop up outside the influence of gravity. Until now, research data collected from the space station has been transmitted down in drips and drops because of competing priorities for the limited connectivity available. That’s what a new partnership between Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Microsoft aims to provide, with edge computing and the Azure cloud. With hundreds more ideas in the works, scientists need solid infrastructure and connection to run and access their experiments. In its 21 years of human occupancy, the space station has hosted more than 3,000 experiments by more than 4,000 researchers from more than 100 countries. Removing gravity from the equation has made a huge difference for scientists researching everything from combustion engines to air purification systems to cancer treatments. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station ( ISS), and it’s her job to hunt for groups - from universities to startups to tech giants - that will “make the best possible use of technology for this spacecraft that has become a floating laboratory circling the globe.”

Kretz’s organization has been directed by NASA, through Congress, to manage the U.S. It’s tearing down rivalries and divisions.” New, reusable rockets are making space exploration more affordable and opening it up to more players, she says, “and that’s the new space. “I grew up with space on the nightly news, and now we’re back again with a new space race, powered by new technology,” says Christine Kretz, vice president of programs and partnerships at the International Space Station U.S. It’s all based on a new platform involving a supercomputer the size of a small microwave oven that’s getting linked to the cloud from space.
IPACK CHAIRS SOFTWARE
Software engineers and researchers across companies are working together to change that with a new partnership that’s improving communication and enabling experiments that will propel astronauts further into space while improving the lives of the earthbound as well. HPE’s Spaceborne Computer-2 is about the size of a microwave oven (Photo by NASA) It struck him that humans would have a better future if political leaders also could see the world that way - as a whole globe - and learn to collaborate.īut he wouldn’t be able to share his now-famous musings with folks back home until he set foot on Earth again, in part due to severely limited connectivity between the spaceship and ground control. When Michael Collins peeked out a portal on the Apollo 11’s command module, orbiting the moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic lunar walk below, he saw a blue and white planet with no borders.
