IBM Watson will help NASA to surf the universe

NASA has a lot of complex projects, the implementation of which is a vital task. Moreover, attention should be paid not only to the main tasks, but also to intermediate, purely technical ones. Such tasks include the retention of the orbit by spacecraft, maneuvering in space, the approach of the apparatus to different objects and with each other. The operator in such situations needs to make a decision very quickly, otherwise the long-term mission may be disrupted due to a small error.

In addition, the agency has accumulated a huge amount of information about outer space and objects that are in it. All this data will now help process IBM Watson. “There is a lot of data that is primary, unstructured information, a lot of text data that a person is simply unable to read,” said Chris Codella, a representative of IBM Watson.

As you know, our cognitive system can analyze huge amounts of information, identifying links between individual elements. IBM Watson can literally find a needle in a haystack if it is there, and all this in a matter of seconds. For example, the system analyzes the links between individual scientific papers, it can help make the correct diagnosis to the patient or solve an important problem in the field of cyber security.
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IBM 100 helped NASA specialists to calculate data when implementing the Apollo program

IBM systems have been used by NASA for more than half a century. It all started with the installation of an IBM mainframe at NASA's Langley Center, with the help of which the agency's experts calculated the correct trajectories of the spacecraft movement. Now, by the way, is preparing the film "Hidden Figures", which tells about how a woman from Langley programmed this system. We are talking about the mathematician Catherine Johnson, who worked with the mainframe even before John Glenn went into space.

What now?

Watson is now working with NASA on a program whose goal is to provide astronauts with important information during the flight that will help them make difficult decisions. Data will be transmitted from the earth. Now NASA is trying to recreate the conditions of the incident that happened to one of the planes several years ago, in order to test the capabilities of Watson. Experts have already checked whether the cognitive system can provide the pilot with data that will help avoid the problem that happened earlier.

The situation itself is not fully disclosed, but it is known that several years ago the pilot managed to land the plane, although during the flight he made mistakes that could lead to a serious accident. As part of the test, Watson provided the pilot with information about the aircraft, problems with equipment and weather conditions in the flight area. All this allowed the pilot to better understand the situation and make the right decision.



Preliminary tests have been completed successfully, next year it is planned to begin the implementation of the next stage.

The first IBM mainframe was located in a large room of the campus of the center. Langley Now the situation is completely different, since IBM Watson is a cloud service that can be operated remotely. There are no problems with this, if the work with the service is carried out on Earth. But in space or on another planet, the situation is different - here, in any case, there will be a “lag”, that is, the delay between sending data and receiving a response.

However, various Watson usage scenarios are possible here as well. It is, for example, a system analysis of the state of astronauts with the search for possible ways of treating a person if he is ill. Here the second or even the minute lag is not important. IBM also proposes to entrust Watson to control the spacecraft — for example, the flight and landing of the rover.

In this case, the lag plays a big role, but there is no particular problem here, since a server with IBM Watson can be sent to space in one form or another. The fact is that the process of miniaturization of equipment, including server equipment, is continuing, so that in the near future this option does not look impossible.

In any case, Watson is already helping the agency analyze huge data sets, calculate various options for operations and select the best solution from all possible.