AWS, D-Orbit, Unibap collaborate to bring edge computing to space
In a new collaboration, Amazon Web Services (AWS), D-Orbit, a space logistics and transportation company, and Unibap, an AI-enabled automation solution company, have joined forces to bring edge computing capabilities to space. The project began when Unibap installed AWS software tools — including machine learning models and AWS IoT Greengrass — onto D-Orbit’s ION carrier payload.
For the past ten months, AWS has been using its cloud-based software platform to collect data from a satellite in low Earth orbit.
“Providing users real-time access to AWS edge services and capabilities on orbit will allow them to gain more timely insights and optimize how they use their satellite and ground resources,” stated Fredrik Bruhn, Unibap’s chief evangelist for digital transformation.
The experiment disclosed at AWS’ re:Invent conference in Las Vegas shows how on-orbit processing can support satellite operators process the reams of data generated by their spacecraft. This past January, the partners sent the ION spacecraft via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A few weeks following the deployments, D-Orbit’s ION carrier began the data processing operations on the payload with AWS software.
The project saw the team apply machine learning models to satellite sensor data and identify objects in the sky, including clouds and wildfires. On top of this, AWS’ AI and ML services helped reduce the satellite images by up to 42 percent, increasing the processing speeds. The AI system could prioritize which satellite images it should download in real-time.
The team also revised how to transfer data to and from the satellite. The companies say the new process makes it easier to manage file transfers automatically. Previously, someone had to intervene and manually download links over multiple ground station contacts.
According to Sergio Mucciarelli, the vice president of commercial sales at D-Orbit, “Our customers want to securely process increasingly large amounts of satellite data with very low latency. We believe in the drive toward edge computing, and we believe it can only be done with space-based infrastructure that is fit for purpose, giving customers a high degree of confidence that they can run their workloads and operations reliably in the harsh space operating environment.”
AWS, Unibap and D-Orbit will further test capabilities on the ION platform, including approaches for better raw data processing and delivery methods. If successful, the companies say this project could change how satellites gather and process data. The team says it could become commonplace for satellites to analyze data before they downlink it.
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