HPE to launch AI straight to the Moon

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is set to launch its AI-powered Spaceborne Computer 4 (SBC4) to the Moon later this year. Part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, the SBC4 will travel to the lunar surface aboard Astrolab's Flex Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) rover. The rover is scheduled to be deployed near the Moon's south pole by the Voyager Technologies Griffin-1 lander.

Equipment specifications

The SBC4 features a low-power central processing unit, graphics processor, and two mirrored Kioxia SSDs with a combined capacity of 1 TB. Although it is not the most powerful computer on the Moon, its size is still significant enough to house existing compute platforms. The FLIP rover has limited power and thermal budgets, making the SBC4 a critical component of the mission.

Experiment objectives

SBC4 will be used to carry out a variety of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) experiments. NASA plans to run tuned large language model (LLM) tests, including a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system to assist with searching and interpreting onboard documents. Additionally, machine learning algorithms will be applied to camera and LiDAR data.

The system will also run high-performance Linpack (HPL) and high-performance conjugate gradient (HPCG) benchmarks, making HPE and Astrolab the first to submit a Top500 entry from a celestial body.

Addressing the challenges of space

SBC4 is designed to withstand extreme vibration stresses during launch and landing, drastic temperature swings, and cosmic rays and solar radiation, as the Moon lacks the thick atmosphere and magnetic field that shields Earth's compute systems. However, the use of off-the-shelf components, such as solid-state drives, has proven to be largely radiation-resistant. HPE's chief scientist of space tech and solutions, Mark Fernandez, has implemented software RAID 1 and continuous monitoring to protect the system.