HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 Returns to the International Space Station

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 Mission goal is to build on previous success and provide the international scientific community access to an expanded scope of space-based edge computing, AI and machine learning capabilities


Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) announced it has sent a third iteration of the HPE Spaceborne Computer, built from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, to the International Space Station (ISS) via a Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services mission, contracted by NASA, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

 

The goal of HPE Spaceborne Computer-2’s latest trip is to build upon the system’s previous success while expanding the scope and complexity of data center-level processing and high performance computing (HPC) that can be done in space, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads. This configuration of the award-winning[i] HPE Spaceborne Computer, based on HPE Edgeline and ProLiant servers, has been updated with over 130 TB of flash-based storage from KIOXIA, the most storage to ever travel to the space station on a single mission. This includes four KIOXIA 960 GB RM Series Value SAS, eight 1,024 GB XG Series NVMe and four 30.72 TB PM6 Enterprise SAS SSDs. The additional flash memory storage will make it possible to run new types of applications and conduct research using larger data sets[ii] through the ISS National Laboratory.

Improvements to HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 also include an updated operating system, NASA space flight support software and new system security. Once on board the space station, the health and status of these technologies will be monitored daily to assess the performance in the harsh conditions of space.

Advancing research on Earth and in space

After installation of HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 is completed on the space station, the system will be used by researchers to advance innovation and save time. Traditionally, data gathered in space was collected aboard the research outpost and sent to Earth for processing. An onboard supercomputer enables data to be evaluated in low Earth orbit in near-real time, making it possible to achieve a 30,000 times reduction in download size[iii] by only transmitting the data output, or insight, to Earth instead, therefore drastically reducing download times. 

Research slated for HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 includes a federated learning (FL) experiment that will independently train ML models and inference engines that were originally created on the Cloud. The experiment will be collaborated on and operated by cloud service providers with the dual-intent to contribute to ML training models used on Earth and maintain an up-to-date AI inference engine in space.

HPE will once again invite the public to submit proposals to perform experiments on the HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 through the ISS National Laboratory. Additional information about submitting proposals can be found here.

Additional Resources

·        ISS National Lab-Sponsored Experiments Propel Spaceborne Computer Toward New Frontiers in Space Computing

·        HPE Spaceborne Computer program: The incredible journey of a computer at the farthest edge

·        KIOXIA Joins Hewlett Packard Enterprise Servers on Space Launch Destined for the International Space Station


Frequently Asked Questions

·        What is new with this version of HPE Spaceborne Computer-2?

o   This configuration of HPE Spaceborne Computer uses more than 130TB of flash-based storage from KIOXIA, the most to every travel to the International Space Station on a single mission. The additional storage will make it possible to run new types of applications and conduct research using larger data sets. Additional improvements include an updated operating system, NASA flight support software and new system security.

o    

·        What components are used?

o   HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 is based on commercial off-the-shelf products. This latest build includes:

§  HPE Edgeline EL4000 (edge-focused single socket with a single GPU)

·        1 x low wattage x86

·        1 x low wattage GPU

·        64 GB of memory total

·        4 x 1024 GB KIOXIA XG6 M.2 SSDs

·        1 x 10GbE Ethernet adapter

§  HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 server (traditional 2-socket HPC compute node)

·        2 x low wattage x86 processors

·        192 GB of memory total

·        4 x 960 GB KIOXIA RM6 2.5” SSDs

·        4 x 30.72 TB KIOXIA PM6 2.5” SSDs

·        1 x 10Gb Ethernet Adapter

§  Software

·        Red Hat 7.8 Operating System

·        NASA TReK  5.3.1

§  Powered from 28Vdc

§  Cooled by AAA & MTL

·        When did the previous HPE Spaceborne Computers launch to space and return to Earth?

o   Spaceborne Computer (first flight)

§  Launch date: August 14, 2017

§  Return-to-Earth: June 4, 2019

o   Spaceborne Computer-2 (second flight)

§  Launch date: February 20, 2021

§  Return-to-Earth: January 11, 2023

o   Spaceborne Computer-2 (third flight)

Launch date: January 30, 2024



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