The hardware-software environment, developed by D-Orbit in collaboration with Unibap, will enable satellite operators to run artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms (AI/ML) apps and provide low-latency information products

HARWELL, UK (D-Orbit PR) — Space transportation and logistics company D-Orbit has successfully completed the orbital testing of Nebula, a cloud platform designed to provide distributed high-performance data analytics computing and storage capabilities in space. Nebula is a hardware-software environment that enables end-users to uplink and run software and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) apps in a way similar to conventional, terrestrial cloud environments.

This first iteration of the system has been built in collaboration with Swedish based AI company Unibap on top of their radiation-tolerant iX5-100 SpaceCloud platform, which features a combination of central processing unit (CPU), graphical process unit (GPU), and vision processing unit (VPU) chips, solid-state storage, and an optimized Linux-based operating system running SpaceCloud framework API.