Startups Specializing in Computing and Protective Technologies Collaborate to Deploy AI-Enhanced Chips into Space

Advanced spacecraft are frequently powered by surprisingly antiquated computer technologies. For example, NASA’s Perseverance rover employs a PowerPC 750 processor, a chip that’s reminiscent of those used in late 1990s iMacs.

Aiming to elevate the computational capabilities within space, the San Francisco-based Aethero is set to dispatch its pioneering computer system into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission this month. This trailblazing device, dubbed the AetherNxN, features a compact, modular design powered by an Nvidia Orin processor and will benefit from innovative radiation shielding provided by Cosmic Shielding Corporation (CSC). This enhancement is expected to spearhead a revolutionary phase in spaceborne computing.

Currently, space electronics fend off detrimental radiation through material shielding—often utilizing metals like aluminum and tantalum—and by being radiation-hardened, which essentially increases their resilience to radiation. The AetherNxN system employs radiation hardening, but the addition of CSC’s novel shielding solution empowers the installation of AI-capable systems in space, allowing them to function amidst the harsh cosmic conditions, as explained by Aethero’s co-founder Edward Ge in a recent dialogue.

CSC brings to the table an innovative, 3D printed material known as Plasteel (a nod to the science fiction classic, Frank Herbert’s Dune) consisting of a polymer mix integrated with radiation-obstructing nanoparticles. Established in 2020, CSC has already tested its shielding technology in space through collaborations with Axiom Space and Quantum Space. This new material boasts greater versatility than traditional options like aluminum, offering promising prospects for a broad range of applications, including potential use in astronautic attire.

Beyond merely diminishing radiation exposure, CSC’s material is claimed to be exceptionally efficient at curtailing “single event effects” — incidents where a lone ionizing particle impacts an electronic system in space. These occurrences, while rare on Earth due to atmospheric protection, pose significant risks to spaceborne electronics.

Addressing the severity of single event effects, CSC’s co-founder and CEO, Yanni Barghouty, employs an analogy, comparing the phenomenon to the difference in impact between 100 tennis balls and a lone bullet against a wall; despite an equivalent total energy, the bullet poses a far greater risk.

Both Ge and Barghouty concur that the progression to more sophisticated processing units in space necessitates the development and implementation of advanced shielding technologies. Aethero envisions its primary market in providing edge processing capabilities for Earth observation, facilitating autonomous identification of notable features, while both enterprises foresee this innovation enabling a new chapter in deep space exploration through enhanced edge computing capabilities.

“The speed and efficiency of AI technology being deployed into space is unprecedented,” Barghouty remarked. “Successfully operating this technology in space quite literally projects Moore’s law beyond our atmospheric confines.”