Towards the internet for space: Bringing cloud computing to space systems

Data is the most valuable asset in space. It is produced by communicating and observing payloads, then downlinked to ground stations, and eventually delivered to the users, who generate information and insights from it. This paper explores an alternative avenue for the exploitation of space data, with the concept of Space Cloud. The space cloud is an orbiting cloud computing infrastructure providing in-orbit data storage and processing services. The idea is to enable on-orbit decision making including reactive planning and scheduling decisions, as well as complex resource management in space networks. The space cloud is the missing element to enable efficient and reliable intersatellite connectivity on top of which a whole new set of services and opportunities can be built in a similar fashion to what happened for the Internet during the 1990s. Building on previous work by the authors, this paper illustrates new efforts for the development of the space cloud concept through the demonstration of optical communication technology as a backbone for cloud computing in space. We illustrate how optical communications technology is an enabler of future space clouds.