HPE to launch AI straight to the Moon
Mystery silicon and mirrored SSDs set to touch down before year's end
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 aboard Astrolab's Flex Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) rover, which will be deployed near the Moon's south pole by the Voyager Technologies Griffin-1 lander.
SBC4 is designed to conduct AI and high-performance computing (HPC) experiments during its year-long mission on the lunar pole. The rover, measuring around 5x10 inches and about an inch thick, is equipped with a low-power central processing unit, a graphics processor, and two Kioxia SSDs totaling 1 TB of capacity. SBC4 will run several AI and HPC benchmarks, including retrieval augmented generation (RAG) tests and machine learning algorithms against camera and LiDAR data.
The rover's primary purpose is to serve as a test bed for emerging technologies, including SBC4, which is a proof of concept vehicle for operating at the edge of Earth's orbit.
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