Space Data-as-a-Service Ready to Take Off

【51CTO.com Quick Translation】The upcoming commercialization of space services requires a ruggedized edge computing environment that takes up very little space but has a reliable connection back to Earth, according to OrbitsEdge, a vendor that recently announced it has begun collaborating with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on orbital computing solutions.

OrbitsEdge, which says it is the first company to offer a commercial data center environment installed in orbit, will use HPE Edgeline converged edge systems in a ruggedized satellite micro data center platform it sells called SatFrame.

The idea is that "as space services become commercialized, the large amounts of data generated can be analyzed, for example, using artificial intelligence," OrbitsEdge CEO Barbara Stinnett said in a news release.

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Why use space data?

The company lists the commercialization of space services as a use case for its micro data center products, with IoT data collection and analysis and experimental testing being two examples. However, commercial uses of space also include imagery, communications, weather forecasting, and navigation. Space tourism and commercial recovery of space resources (such as raw materials mined from asteroids) are possible future uses.

Additionally, manufacturing that exploits vacuum and zero-gravity environments is one of the economic activities that could potentially take advantage of orbital data processing.

Separately, Cloud Constellation Corp., a company I wrote about in 2017 (no relation to OrbitsEdge or HPE), believes that highly sensitive data should be stored and isolated in space. It describes its SpaceBelt product as “the most reliable air-gapped security.”

Why use Space Edge?

OrbitsEdge believes that data must be processed in space where it is collected to reduce the transmission bottleneck when the data is transmitted back to the base station on Earth. The company explained on its website: "The bottleneck will become more serious due to the new wave of low-cost commercial space activities."

This means that sending satellites into space is cheap now, and getting cheaper (largely thanks to reusable rocket technology), but getting that information back to the traditional cloud environment on the Earth's surface is problematic. There's not enough capacity to send data back, which increases processing costs. So the cloud needs to move to the point where data is collected: what ObitsEdge cleverly calls "IoT on the cloud."

How does it work?

Solar arrays mounted on the satellite collect energy from the sun, which can be used by batteries when the satellite is in the Earth's shadow.

Thermal and radiation shielding protect a standard 5U 19-inch server rack. Avionics have a separate rack. Integrated conventional air-to-air and air-to-ground radio communications systems then handle communications. Future needs have also been considered: laser data pipes can also be supported, the company says.

Ground terminal selection

It is worth noting that the company also claims that its maintenance-free low-Earth orbit (LEO) product is also suitable for extreme terrestrial environments. OrbitsEdge claims that SatFrame is reliable enough to cope with the extreme chemical and temperature environments on Earth. When it is upselling, it also claims that users can merge two micro data centers: a LEO SatFrame running HPE Edgeline, communicating with another in an extreme location on Earth (perhaps at the poles).

“To keep up with the rate of change and the number of satellites launched into low-Earth orbit, new services must be provided,” OrbitsEdge said. “It is not practical to transmit data back to the terrestrial cloud, which is the only option today.”

Original title: Space-data-as-a-service prepares to take off, author: Patrick Nelson

[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]