Satlyt tests orbital task planning with one spacecraft computer and simulated peers

Satlyt disclosed an orbital test of software that plans computing tasks according to available processing power and communications, TechCrunch reported on October 30. The experiment, conducted earlier in October with the University of Houston under NASA-funded research, ran on one physical computer aboard a spacecraft; three other computers in the four-node network were simulated. The result shows that the planning component could execute on orbital hardware and return outputs to Earth. It does not demonstrate computing work shared between separate satellites. The company said it still needs broader tests across hardware, workloads and connectivity conditions, and identified a timing issue that recorded arrival time rather than elapsed delay. Satlyt wants software to let spacecraft process data near their sensors instead of sending everything to the ground. Future shared-computing systems would also require communications links, operator permission, secure transfers and recovery when nodes become unavailable. NASA funded the research but has not selected the technology for a mission or deployment. This result is separate from Satlyt’s earlier $8 million seed announcement.

DTT summary based on TechCrunch's report. The full article is on the publisher's site.