Emerging IT Crucial for Our Commercial Expansion Into Space
Emerging IT tools and trends that will shape our commercial space missions.
- Publicly funded space milestones planned over the next decade aim to put human boots on the Moon and Mars.
- A comprehensive international approach and collaboration with the private sector to provide support services are already resulting in new technological advances and the promise of economic opportunities that are out of this world.
- With the help of former astronaut and new executive vice-president of strategy at the Canadian Space Mining Corp., Andrew Feustel, Brian Jackson of Info-Tech Research Group looks at some areas of emerging IT that will play a role.
When astronaut and geophysicist Andrew Feustel flew on NASA’s STS-125 Atlantis mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009, he helped install new capabilities that pushed the limits of science and engineering.
Two new components Feustel helped install over the course of more than 20 hours of spacewalks include the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. The instruments improved Hubble’s performance and gave humanity its greatest-ever eye to peer into the depths of space and understand the true vastness of the universe and its emergence back to the beginning of time. The Wide Field Camera 3 was designed to be sensitive enough and wide enough to capture features of the universe further away than ever before. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph allowed for analysis of the non-visible light spectrum that unlocked new mysteries for scientists.
In 2014, NASA released this higher-resolution image of the Pillars of Creation, originally photographed in 1995 by Hubble. The Wide Field Camera 3 made the new image possible. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA’s technological contributions, such as the CMOS sensor used in today’s consumer cameras and spectrometry for understanding chemical composition through light, are just a couple examples of innovations that have had broader impacts on other more Earth-bound industries. It’s a trickle-down effect that Feustel knows well and plans to flip on its head as he takes on his new role as the executive vice president of strategy at the Canadian Space Mining Corp. (CSMC). The Toronto-based company is positioning itself to eventually play a role in humankind’s return to the Moon and eventually to Mars, but first, it’s looking to commercialize its advanced technology and services on Earth.
“The advantage of CSMC is our intention for dual-use technologies,” he explains. “We work off the Earth, for the Earth, and in the case of some healthcare focuses and service of remote areas of Canada and the world, CSMC is going to develop technologies that are beneficial on the planet and off the planet. We are using Earth as the test bed for space.”
The next decade promises to be humankind’s most active period in space. Not only do NASA and other international space agencies plan to return people to the Moon for the first time since 1972 and then push humanity’s boundaries beyond, but they plan to do it with a mandate to create a new economic driver for private investment. Commercial services will be relied upon to provide communications support, operations and logistics capabilities, and even resource extraction and processing.
“A lot of companies around the world are engaging in activities to help humans return to the Moon, and it’s bringing a lot of opportunities,” Feustel says. “In my 23-year career as an astronaut, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this level of commitment not only by the federal government but by private companies to get back to space.”
The stage is set for new advancements in IT based on the complex requirements of supporting people living, exploring, and conducting science in the harsh environment beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Companies are already pursuing plans to provide it across several areas.
See More: How Can AI Developers Avoid Ethical Landmines?
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI has been booming since ChatGPT caught the world’s attention last November. It will also play an important role in space exploration as it can provide autonomy when people can’t be present or help quickly assess a massive amount of data to determine the most significant findings. AI is going to play a role in everything from autonomously operated spacecraft to making satellite communications more effective.
AI will likely be the pilot that lands the next human-occupied spacecraft on the Moon, Feustel says. “We did this manually in the past, but we also had different spacecraft. When you look at the (Orion spacecraft), it’s quite tall and quite narrow, so you need help with positioning it to land without falling over.”
Using AI in space will require creating executable models that are robust enough to get the job done while also being small and efficient enough to run at the edge on the device itself. Distance from Earth and positioning due to orbital mechanics mean that calling back to a server for a query isn’t going to work. Several companies are developing AI that could be used in space applications, backed by some funding from the Canadian Space Agency, such as the following instances:
- Westmount, Quebec-based Maya Heat Transfer Technologies is developing a next-generation approach to evaluating a spacecraft thermal analysis. Maya uses software to simulate the effects of heat transfer on 3D models. It offers customers advanced orbital thermal simulation, reducing the need to build physical prototypes.
- Ottawa-based Obruta Space Solutions is developing “the best spacecraft pilot in the universe.” It offers systems for autonomous spacecraft docking. AI plays a role in computer vision (or determining what the spacecraft sees), as well as guidance and navigation.
- Calgary-based Complex System Inc. is developing a satellite edge analytic platform for scalable AI. Its analytic solution includes ship detection, tracking, and recognition from satellite video or imagery.
For CSMC’s part, Feustel says AI could play a role in many of its systems, including connected healthcare and eventually mining the Moon’s surface for water and fuel components. For those worried about a HAL type of situation harkening back to 2001: A Space Odyssey, he acknowledges that building trust will be important.
“Where the public gets nervous is the idea that we are just going to let robots control everything,” he says. “We need to put safeguards in place and have overrides.”
Augmented Reality and Digital Twins
When the Canadarm2, the robotic arm on the International Space Station, is used today, it’s operated in real-time from the ground by a team of experts. That won’t be possible for future, more far-flung space stations such as the Lunar Gateway, which will eventually be in orbit around the Moon to support future Artemis missions. Such a space station would be so far from Earth that the latency would make real-time operation too difficult, and it would have prolonged blackout periods with no communications at all.
Toronto-based Interaptix worked with MDA on using augmented reality technology to solve the logistical problems of planning for space station operations with these complex conditions. A paper presented at the 2019 International Astronautical Congress details how a smaller team using augmented reality to access a digital twin of the space station and its robotic arm (the Canadarm3) could plan out an entire week’s worth of operations. The team would use this system to input goals for automated systems to act upon and upload them in telemetry payloads when the station was in communications range.
Working with MDA on this concept was just one example of how Interaptix is designing solutions for industry, with many more applications right here on Earth.
“We’ve done work anywhere from minimally invasive surgery all the way to operating robots in space,” says Interaptix CEO Baria Bina. “We are building a metaverse for the industrial enterprise.”
The company is positioning itself as a self-serve digital twin platform that allows non-expert employees to scan their environment with a mobile device to create a working model. Auditors and trainers can then use these models to complete their work without having to travel to different destinations.
See More: Forget the VR Vision of the Metaverse: Digital Twins Are Coming
The Space Internet
Elon Musk’s Starlink and other firms aim to put satellites into space to deliver broadband internet around the globe, but what about extending the internet out to users in space? It’s already been done for the International Space Station, where astronauts can use broadband connections for video conference calls just as routinely as those of us earth-dwellers.
“We’ll develop that for Lunar exploration eventually, but we don’t have those satellites in place for around the Moon,” Feustel says. “It won’t be just NASA driving that effort, though, private industry will have a need for data telemetry from their systems, and this will require high-bandwidth signals, and we’ll see their growing impact.”
Companies already looking to build the internet for space include Toronto-based Kepler Communications. It’s raised more than $200 million and plans to launch an optical data relay infrastructure in 2024 to complement its existing RF network. This network will consist of satellite arrays and will offer optical services to customers by the first quarter of 2025.
Saskatoon-based Calian Advanced Technologies is developing a high-performance RF over IP technology, in part with $520,000 in funding from the Canadian Space Agency. This would remove the limitations of using analog RF systems, which can be prone to data loss. It would mean that satellite ground stations could be spaced further apart, as the risk of signal degradation would be removed.
The Final Frontier
The next decade of space exploration may be tied to public funding of the major missions, which can see support waver when new governments get elected, or there is more need for austerity. But many initiatives are already underway, and the level of commercial activity signals significant momentum toward a space-based economy.
“I truly believe with the level of interest and impact and investment going on right now, we’ll see this continue, and we’ll see humans on the surface of the Moon,” Feustel says. “And they’ll need service to support them.”
The race is on to see who provides them. Except in the 21st-century space race, it’s less about which country will be first to do it and more about which company will seize the opportunities presented by the final frontier.
With the latest buzz around JWST findings and the upcoming missions like Artemis, where do you see emerging IT fitting into the larger mission of space exploration? Share with us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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