Hello, today we will be talking about the edge computing
in space on the international space station for the DNA sequencing.
My name is Naeem, I'm IBM's CTO for Space Tech.
Let's talk about edge computing. What is edge computing?
Edge computing is about taking the compute and storage where the data is being produced,
so we can reduce the latency and reduce the movement of data from point A to point B.
Let's first talk about the international space station.
The international space station is above earth in the LEO,
which is called the Lower Earth Orbit around 250 miles above.
It travels around 17,500 miles per hour, and it can circle every 90 minutes.
The way it communicates, there are satellites in the geostationary orbit.
It's a constellation of these satellites
from where it relays information back to the ground stations on the earth
and the data goes into data centers.
That's all the mechanism of how the uplink and downlink works.
Now, let's talk about the DNA sequencing.
So, what is the DNA?
DNA serves as a blueprint for an organism.
DNA sequencing is about finding the characteristics of this organism.
It can be very beneficial for monitoring the astronaut s health
or looking for infectious disease on the space station.
The way today it works, the astronauts on the space station
they are scheduled to take a sample from the surface
and run through this portable DNA sequencer device.
It's a physical device which is attached to a laptop.
Once the run is done, it generates raw data
which can be several hundred gigabytes.
Today this data comes down via the satellites on the ground for processing
and this whole process takes some time.
In our collaboration with HPE who sent their
SBC-2 systems, Spaceborne Computer-2 systems.
In our partnership with them, we determined that we can do
the processing of all of this raw data which is being produced.
Instead of bringing that information down to the earth,
we can just do all the processing.
We utilized the IBM Cloud,
and we built the open-source code, running it on the
Red Hat CRC, which is Code Ready Container, OpenShift platform.
Basically, it's a set of containerized code which we built.
This code was pushed to NASA, and then NASA pushed this code up to the space station
onto the SBC-2 computers.
Now this solution has several steps
because it's a sequential process, it has to go and process all this information.
So, the first thing: the containers when they come up on the CRC platform
they go through a step called "base calling". Then the next step is de-multiplexing.
The third step is the alignment, the fourth step is the analysis,
and the last step is actually generating the report.
This whole process can take up to 6 to 8 hours,
and at the end of the day it generates a file which is less than one megabyte.
So, as you can see is in this edge computing use case where we were initially moving hundreds of
gigs of data back to the ground and processing and taking time - in this case literally in a day.
Within 6 to 8 hours we can create the file, the file is less than one meg, and we can
send down to the earth, that's the resulting file which the scientists are looking for,
and thus reducing the time, latency, preserving the bandwidth which is very
critical at the space station communications between, because there are many projects happening.
So, as we said, this is an extreme use-case for the edge computing.
Now, think about this: as we are moving forward, going back to the moon as part of Artemis program,
Mars, and beyond. If we use this edge computing mechanisms point devices as we
are heading towards the deeper space, we might be able to detect possibly life beyond earth.
Thank you.