Naturally, Rama Afullo’s first reaction was, “Let’s GOOOO,” he said. His company, Satlyt, is building software to turn existing satellites into data processing networks, similar to the orbital data center concept. And he just took another step closer to that.

After 13 months of work, the company had a successful test earlier this month. Working with the University of Houston on a NASA-funded research project, the test showed how the startup’s software can spread out tasks among computers while in orbit based on communication and available compute.

He said the goal is to create software that connects to multiple satellites to share computing assignments. Users of the system “will only need to define permissions, priorities, and operating limits,” while the software will make decisions within those limits, Afullo told TechCrunch. Its software is already on three satellites in orbit and the first step to that vision was this test. While the test used NASA-funded research, the agency has not yet selected it for any particular mission or chosen it to deploy its technology.

Afullo said NASA missions face the same constraints that Satlyt hopes to address — “limited computing resources, intermittent communication, and the need to get useful information back to people.” 

In this test, the company created a simulated network with four computers, four users, and eight services. The software then assessed how to assign and run tasks on those computers, accounting for compute and communication availability. Only one physical computer on a spacecraft in orbit ran the software — the other three were just simulations — eventually sending the results back to Earth.

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