Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, this is a constellation of Italian satellites carrying over 100 terabytes of data.
The Italian Ministry of Defense is experimenting with space technology for cloud and cybersecurity solutions, and aerospace company Leonardo has been tasked with defining a space architecture that can provide high-performance computing and storage capacity beyond Earth. .
According to the company, the Military Space Cloud Architecture (MILSCA) “research project” will integrate cloud, supercomputing and AI to support the digitalization and innovation processes of the Italian government and military. One of the main objectives of this project is to ensure increased speed, security and flexibility in processing and sharing information.
The Space Cloud will be tested by creating a digital twin of the architecture and will be able to store more than 100 terabytes of data generated on Earth and in space aboard each satellite.
The Italian Ministry of Defense, which is funding the MILSCA project, says its cyber-secure supercomputers and space archiving system will enable even the most remote users to access strategic data such as communications, earth observation and navigation data. We expect access to be guaranteed.
MILSCA also serves as a backup for centers on Earth that are exposed to natural disasters.
talk to stackNishant Sastry, director of research at the University of Surrey’s School of Computer Science, said the project was “interesting and very ambitious”.
“Having computing capabilities in space is very useful. For example, many of the images taken for remote imaging and Earth observation do not need to be sent back to Earth. Also, the downlink from the satellite to the ground is Given that it can become a bottleneck,” he explained. .
“We can use computing capabilities in space to decide which images to send back, or to process images directly in space, minimizing the amount of data that needs to be sent. .”
But Sastry added that the plan also had its challenges, explaining that above a certain height, known as the Van Allen radiation belt, the satellite would be continuously exposed to radiation.
This can result in arbitrary errors where the stored bit flips from 0 to 1 or vice versa, making the storage unreadable.
MILSCA must continue to recognize that “radiation hardening” is necessary to protect against such hazards.
Meanwhile in Britannia…
While Italy moves towards cyber-secure space-based computing, the UK government has announced a call for proposals for commercially supported space travel.
The Government has launched two funding offers worth £15 million to take forward potential space missions in partnership with American space infrastructure developer Axiom Space.
The proposal calls for one for science and one for technology demonstrators, as preparations are made for a deal aimed at flying a team of four British astronauts to the International Space Station. ing.
This Science Call is to support UK-based researchers to plan and carry out scientific research using microgravity and space environments. The Technology Demonstrator call seeks support in the field of exploration to test innovative technologies within the space environment.
As governments push toward what Sastry calls a “new space paradigm,” public-private partnerships appear to be the way forward.