While there has been a lot of innovation in cloud infrastructure and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings for various AI/ML companies, space technology is still in its infancy with only a few large companies taking steps to expand in the sector. As of August 5, there were 5,500 space tech startups in the world, of which over 100 were in India.
Space technology infrastructure is important as it is the foundation for space exploration. Space technology giants NASA and ISRO also use space technology platforms built by Microsoft, IBM and Amazon.
Here is a list of companies offering space technology platforms as a service that provide communications, data acquisition, and analytics services on the ground, in the cloud, and beyond to accelerate innovation in space.
Microsoft Azure Spaces
Microsoft has partnered with NASA on numerous projects since the beginning of space exploration. The company recently launched the Azure Space platform, which enables space innovation with infrastructure in the cloud. This cloud system is connected to Azure’s Orbital Ground Station, which allows for rapid ingestion of data from space. This allows for low-latency connectivity between satellites and Azure cloud services, expanding communication and enabling space innovation from anywhere. Recently, Microsoft launched the Azure Orbital Space SDK, which aims to democratize space development, providing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), a hosting platform for developers to test and deploy space hardware.
AWS in Space
Besides Microsoft, AWS also provides cloud services for space missions with their innovation AWS in Space. AWS Ground Station was used in Northern Sky Research’s cloud computing mission. It is a fully managed service that controls satellite communications, processes data, and scales operations. AWS cloud infrastructure provides a low-latency global fiber network, Amazon Kinesis for storing and managing data, and Amazon SageMaker for building machine learning applications.
Recently, at re:Invent 2022, AWS announced a suite of machine learning and computational software on a satellite that will orbit low earth orbit (LEO) for 10 months, in partnership with D-Orbit and Unibap.
IBM Space
NASA partnered with IBM nearly 50 years ago to land humans on the Moon. Since then, IBM has been innovating new technologies to enable space missions. In 2021, IBM worked with ground station HPE Spaceborne Computer-2, NASA and ISS National Lab to deliver edge computing solutions in space. In October 2022, IBM partnered with Sierra Space to build space infrastructure for LEO commercialization, using IBM’s seamless cloud technology for use in space to further Sierra Space’s space innovation.
Additionally, the James Webb Telescope also uses the IBM-built Rational Rose RealTime tool for handling time-critical events, which is primarily used to create models of systems based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML), which is built to generate implementation code.
Ramon Space
Ramon.Space partners with NASA, Jaxa and ISA to provide space technology companies with hardware and software services for deep space missions. Capabilities include remote sensing, Earth observation and IoT for space missions. Storage and memory capabilities are specifically designed with AI/ML in mind.
The software is a fully programmable in-orbit satellite payload that will bring high-performance, lightweight, Earth-like computing to space. CEO Avi Shabtai announced in November that the company has partnered with LEOCloud, Azure, and Axiom Space, the company that developed the first commercial space station, to develop new space-grade silicon circuitry alongside the hardware.
Vioma
Vyoma, a Germany-based company with the goal of building an operating system for space, provides infrastructure for satellite safety. Vyoma offers sophisticated APIs and GUIs for data acquisition and networking tasks for tasks such as orbit determination and identification. The company has served governments, defense and satellite operators around the world.
In May 2022, Vyoma announced a partnership with Atos, a leading European company, to build a database of small space objects. The goal of the partnership is to provide space situational awareness (SSA) data and develop solutions to help satellite operators avoid collisions and reduce spacecraft maneuvers.
