CNET by Stephen Shankland September 20, 2017
Thinking about toting a computer with you to Mars? Hewlett Packard Enterprise is sending some big iron into orbit to figure out how.
Editor's note Sept. 20: Hewlett Packard Enterprise said Wednesday its Spaceborne computer successfully powered up. The original story about the announcement, from Aug 11, is below.
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.
More:
https://www.cnet.com/news/space-station-to-test-supercomputer-bathed-in-cosmic-rays/
