Hewlett Packard Enterprise sends first supercomputer into space

Source: HPE. In an effort to advance this mission, HPE and NASA have launched a supercomputer into space on the SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft, the Spaceborne Computer.

· A mission to Mars will require sophisticated computing capabilities

· HPE and NASA have launched a supercomputer into space on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft

· The Spaceborne Computer is a year-long experiment


The SpaceX CRS-12 rocket, developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida in the US, sending its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab. A supercomputer from HPE is on board. The move is a step towards ensuring that sophisticated onboard computing resources are capable of extended periods of uptime in space as would be required for a mission to Mars.

Called the Spaceborne Computer, the supercomputer is part of a year-long experiment conducted by HPE and NASA to run a high performance commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer system in space, which has never been done before. The goal is for the system to operate seamlessly in the harsh conditions of space for one year – roughly the amount of time it will take to travel to Mars.

Challenges of space

Many of the calculations needed for space research projects are still done on Earth due to the limited computing capabilities in space, which then requires the data to be sent to and from space. While this approach works for space exploration on the moon or in low Earth orbit (LEO) when astronauts can be in near real-time communication with Earth, Mars is much farther so astronauts are likely to experience larger communication latencies. HPE estimates that it would take up to 20 minutes for communications to reach Earth and then another 20 minutes for responses to reach astronauts. Such communication lags could make on-the-ground exploration challenging and potentially dangerous if astronauts need help with mission-critical scenarios, HPE points out. 

The Spaceborne Computer experiment is expected to show what needs to be done to advance computing in space and spark discoveries for how to improve high performance computing (HPC) on Earth. Future phases of the experiment will eventually involve sending other new technologies and advanced computing systems, like memory-driven computing, to the ISS, HPE said.

HPC hardware, custom software

The Spaceborne Computer contains compute nodes of the same class as NASA’s premier supercomputer, Pleiades, currently ranked #9 in the world. It includes HPE Apollo 40 class systems, designed for supercomputing, with a high speed HPC interconnect running an open-source Linux operating system. Though there are no hardware modifications to these components, HPE created a unique water-cooled enclosure for the hardware and developed purpose-built system software to address the environmental constraints and reliability requirements of supercomputing in space. 

Generally, NASA requires that the equipment be ruggedised – hardened to withstand the conditions in space, where conditions like radiation, solar flares, subatomic particles, micrometeoroids, unstable electrical power, and irregular cooling could occur. This physical hardening takes time, money and adds weight, so HPE took a different approach by hardening the systems with software. HPE’s system software will manage real-time throttling of the computer systems based on current conditions and can mitigate environmentally-induced errors. Even without traditional ruggedising, the system still passed at least 146 safety tests and certifications in order to be NASA-approved for space.

Through its SGI acquisition, HPE has a 30-year relationship with NASA. This relationship started the co-development of the world's first IRIX single-system image in 1998.