{"id":17549,"date":"2021-05-19T17:47:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T09:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/microsoft-and-ball-aerospace-enlist-the-cloud-to-speed-up-space-forces-data-flow\/"},"modified":"2021-05-19T17:47:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T09:47:32","slug":"microsoft-and-ball-aerospace-enlist-the-cloud-to-speed-up-space-forces-data-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/microsoft-and-ball-aerospace-enlist-the-cloud-to-speed-up-space-forces-data-flow\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft and Ball Aerospace enlist the cloud to speed up Space Force\u2019s data flow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Telesat
An artist\u2019s conception shows Telesat\u2019s Phase 1 LEO satellite in orbit. (Telesat Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How will Pentagon planners cope with the torrents of data that are expected to rain down from a constellation of satellites monitoring hotspots from low Earth orbit?<\/p>\n

Microsoft and Ball Aerospace say they\u2019ve demonstrated that the cloud can handle it \u2014 and not just handle it, but process multiple streams of satellite data five times faster than the Pentagon\u2019s target speed.<\/p>\n

The demonstration of a prototype system was conducted this year for the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Innovation Unit in support of the Commercially Augmented Space Inter Networked Operations Program Office, or CASINO, which is under the aegis of the U.S. Space Force\u2019s Space and Missile Systems Center.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of the test, Telesat provided access to its satellite network in low Earth orbit. Ball Aerospace provided the event-driven architecture for dealing with the data beamed down from space. And Microsoft Azure provided the cloud-computing firepower for processing the data and pulling out insights.<\/p>\n

Telesat\u2019s satellite sent down as many as 20 separate streams of simulated Overhead Persistent Infrared sensor readings, also known as OPIR. Such data streams could be crucial for detecting and countering missile threats \u2014 but processing the flood of data is no easy task.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this prototype did was prove out that low Earth orbit is a viable capability for the Space Force, working with the cloud. Against the program goals that the DIU set, the ground processing with space data is about five times faster with the Azure cloud,\u201d Tom Keane, corporate vice president for Azure Global, told GeekWire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think it\u2019s a pretty big deal,\u201d Keane said.<\/p>\n

The team was able to transmit OPIR data via Telesat\u2019s satellites to Azure in the datacenter as well as directly to a tactical vehicle equipped with an Azure Stack Edge device. \u201cThis brings the ability to have satellite connectivity on a vehicle, or even on something that\u2019s moving, like a plane in flight,\u201d Keane said.<\/p>\n

\"Microsoft
The Microsoft-Ball data processing demonstration showed that satellite data could be downlinked and processed on a tactical vehicle. (Microsoft Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Smith, Ball Aerospace\u2019s vice president and general manager for systems engineering solutions, said the system could open up new frontiers for satellite applications related to defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in the ground processing business for 30 years, and so this idea of not having to build a building, and not having to haul in a bunch of processors, and not having to haul in a bunch of storage, and having that be your ground system \u2026 the capability of getting away from that is exciting,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe cloud becomes your ground system.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to Microsoft\u2019s ability to deal with big data from satellites, CASINO isn\u2019t the only game in town.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has a program called Blackjack that aims to develop a broadband satellite constellation in low Earth orbit for defense applications. Microsoft is part of a team that\u2019s working on the mission management system for Blackjack satellites, known as Pit Boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say that we continue to work together with our partners to win more business, and to compete for business,\u201d Keane said.<\/p>\n

Keane added that the insights gained from the CASINO project could also feed into commercial ventures, including Microsoft Azure\u2019s partnership with SpaceX and its Starlink satellite broadband network.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work that we\u2019re doing here, the experimentation, the work together with customers absolutely has applicability to the partnerships that we have elsewhere in space, like the Starlink partnership,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, we demonstrated from a moving airframe, using a Ball antenna, using the Starlink array to talk into Azure. So we\u2019ve actually had the Azure cloud capabilities in use on an airframe in flight, together with Ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keane said the next steps will focus on innovative ways to transform satellite data into deep insights \u2014 on the battlefield, or in the office. \u201cAs we look at doing things with that data, with augmented intelligence, with predictive analytics \u2026 the possibilities there almost become endless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows Telesat\u2019s Phase 1 LEO satellite in orbit. (Telesat Illustration) How will Pentagon planners cope with the torrents of data that are expected to rain down from a constellation of satellites monitoring hotspots from low Earth orbit? Microsoft and Ball Aerospace say they\u2019ve demonstrated that the cloud can handle it \u2014 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4577,1665,252,497,4017,439,20,442,332,2739],"class_list":["post-17549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-azure","tag-ball-aerospace","tag-broadband","tag-cloud-computing","tag-microsoft","tag-military","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-space-force","tag-telesat"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}