Hewlett Packard Enterprise's unassuming Spaceborne Computer will test supercomputing reliability with NASA's help on the International Space Station.
HAL seemed to have little trouble in "2001: A Space Odyssey," but here's the problem with computers in space: a constant stream of cosmic rays seriously disrupt electronics.
That's why Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NASA are testing how well supercomputing technology works on the International Space Station. A SpaceX rocket scheduled to lift off Monday will carry a machine called the Spaceborne Computer that will see whether software techniques can catch and correct errors induced by the radiation from our sun and galaxy that reaches low Earth orbit. HPE announced the work Friday.
The research ultimately could improve computers here on Earth -- but also get humans to Mars.
"Mars is the next frontier, and we need supercomputing to get there. Mars astronauts won't have near-instant access to high-performance computing (HPC) like those in low-Earth orbit do -- the red planet is 26 light minutes round-trip away," said Mark Fernandez, Americas technology officer at HPE's SGI business unit. Supercomputers can be used for tasks like figuring out what to do if a spacecraft or Mars habitation has a system failure.
The Spaceborne Computer is nothing like the mammoth supercomputers on Earth, which take up rooms the size of basketball courts to tackle complex challenges like simulating the planet's weather or the effects of aging on nuclear weapons. But it uses the same basic technology, including Intel processors and a high-speed interconnect to join the system's independent computing nodes.
In this case, the computer employs a 56Gbps optical interconnect to link its different nodes. That's fast enough data-transfer speed to transfer three episodes of "Game of Thrones" from one machine to another in less than a second.
Space is a tough environment, but it has its perks. One of them is that the machine's water cooling system can poke out into space, keeping the machine from overheating for free. On Earth, cooling data centers is a major expense for companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft that operate thousands upon thousands of machine.
The challenge for the Spaceborne Computer is to get it all working despite cosmic rays. The Earth's magnetic field protects the planet's surface from these electrically charged particles -- protons and other particles that stream in from our sun, elsewhere in the galaxy and sometimes even other galaxies. They carry so much energy they can blast electronics out of whack, corrupting memory and messing up calculations.
Some computers destined for space have special shielding and other protection, but not this one. Instead of hardware changes, the computer employs software layers to for detection, correction and protection, Fernandez said. "Success would be ... correct results for a year," he said.
And that's the kind of reliability that could benefit us even here on Earth.
The Smartest Stuff: Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you, and the things around you, smarter.
iHate: CNET looks at how intolerance is taking over the internet.
Go here to read the rest:
Space station to test supercomputer bathed in cosmic rays - CNET
- Fermi Telescope Caps First Year With Glimpse of Space-Time - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Antarctic Airborne Science Mission Nears Mid-Point - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Awards Education Research Grants to Minority Universities - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New Celestial Map Gives Directions for GPS - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Invites Reporters to Tranquility Node Ceremony at Kennedy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Happy Halloween - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA's Fermi Telescope Detects Gamma-Ray From "Star Factories" in Other Galaxies - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Announces Advisory Council Chairs and Committee Structure - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA and X Prize Announce Winners of Lunar Lander Challenge - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- MESSENGER Spacecraft Reveals More Hidden Territory on Mercury - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Successful Flight Through Enceladus Plume - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Education Secretary Hosts DC Students for Talk with Space Station - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Operation Ice Bridge Studies Antarctic Sea Ice - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA West Point Welcomes Home One of Their Heroes - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Spitzer Observes a Chaotic Planetary System - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- X-38 Crew Return Vehicle Finds New Home - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Have some faith He is doing his best - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Cross - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Spring Bloom in New Zealand Waters - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Hubble image showcases star birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Take Me Out to the Ballpark - On Mars! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Poisk Poised for Live NASA TV Space Station Docking - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ceremony Reset for ESA Handover of Tranquility to NASA - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Reproduces a Building Block of Life in Laboratory - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Now Online: Aeronautics Goes E-Book - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Water on the Moon, Drought on Earth: NASA Experts Available for Radio And Podcast Interviews During Major Science Meeting - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Launch of NASA's Wise Spacecraft Delayed Until Dec. 14 - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Connecticut Students Set for Cosmic Conversation with Space Station Commander - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Magnetic Dance of Titan and Saturn To Be Main Attraction during Flyby - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Hubble's Deepest View of Universe Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Earth's Moon - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- How do you Make a Helicopter Safer to Fly? You Crash One. - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Physicist Earns Title as Kennedy's Best - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Hubble Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Fermi Sees Brightest-Ever Blazar Flare - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Magnetic Power Revealed in Gamma-Ray Burst Jet - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Just 5 Questions: Aerosols - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Hometown Heroes 2009: Astronaut & Terrible Towel Return to Pittsburgh - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Garver Honors Four for Saving the Life of a Fifth at NASA Langley - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Administrator Bolden Speaks at AAIA-WIA Luncheon - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Best (Meteor) Shower of 2009 - No Towel Required - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- NASA Making Government More Accessible With Cutting-Edge Use Of New Media - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Scarce Water, Our Quiet Sun and Space Rocks Among NASA News Highlights at American Geophysical Union Meeting - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Press Credentials Deadlines Set for Next Space Shuttle Flight - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Reddish Dust and Ice Migration Darken Saturn's Moon Iapetus - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Galaxy Collision Switches on Black Hole - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- I’m watching the launch of NASA’s WISE spacecraft - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- SOFIA Aloft - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Guide to the International Space Station Laboratory Racks Interactive - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Freezing WISE's Hydrogen - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Local High School Wins Invention Challenge - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- WISE Ready to Soar Into Space - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- NASA Data Reveal Major Groundwater Loss in California's Heartland - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Looks for Safer Icing Forecast For Pilots - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- Challenges of Living and Working Aboard the Space Station: NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott Available for TV Interviews - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Astronaut, Food Scientist Available for Interviews about Holiday Feasts in Space - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Launches Web Site for Teenagers That Want More Class - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- A Unique Geography -- and Soot and Dust -- Conspire Against Himalayan Glaciers - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- New Study Turns Up the Heat on Soot's Role in Himalayan Warming - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA's WISE Eye on the Universe Begins All-Sky Survey Mission - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Offers Sound Clips for Radio, Online Newscasters - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Gets Up-Close Look at Far Corner of the Globe - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Orion Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Test-fired - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- The Dark Side of Carbon - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- R97UYEA6HD8W - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA's AIM Satellite and Models are Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious "Night-Shining" Clouds - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Classroom Learning Takes Off with NASA-Funded Education Projects - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Buys Additional Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motors - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Searching for New Vaccines and Studying Butterflies in Space; NASA Offers TV Interviews about Latest Space Station Science Research - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Partners with Saudi Arabia on Moon and Asteroid Research - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- New Results from a Terra-ific Decade in Orbit - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Deposits in Martian Trough Point to Complex Hydrological Past - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Outlines Recent Greenhouse Gas Research - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Unexpected Wheel-Test Results - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Solar Storms and Radiation Exposure on Commercial Flights - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Global Digital Elevation Model - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]