How to design an edge computing system for space

In 1962, when astronaut John Glenn was preparing for an orbital mission, mathematician Katherine Johnson was called by the US space agency Nasa for an important task: calculating trajectories. “If she says they are good,’” Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, “then I am ready to go.” Glenn’s flight was a success—and changed the course of human spaceflight. They rely heavily on that downlink and process it down on Earth,” says Mark Fernandez, the principal investigator for SBC-2 and solution architect, converged edge systems, at HPE. They don’t want to catch the astronauts’ attention unless it’s something of importance, like a red blinking light.” Back on Earth, Fernandez and HPE researchers will receive status updates on the system’s health and functioning every six seconds. In the near future, Fernandez hopes this “edge” can be a deep space exploration spacecraft or Mars habitat.