Microsoft has held a private preview of the Azure Orbital Space Software Development Kit.
The Azure Orbital Space Software Development Kit was developed to lower the barrier to entry for space developers and reduce the need to develop custom solutions.
“Azure Orbital enables space-related applications to be created and built in the cloud and then run on spacecraft,” Stephen Kitay, senior general manager of Azure Space, told Space News.
Space application development is a highly specialized field, but application development takes a long time due to the lack of industry standards. In addition, application development itself is difficult, and it is difficult to reuse code for satellites or missions.
The capabilities of the on-orbit computers are gradually improving. But as Earth observation, communications, and space domain awareness missions use artificial intelligence and machine learning to speed up operations and enable spacecraft automation, the demand for rapid data processing is on the rise.
Instead of launching its own satellites, Azure Orbital has developed an intelligent hosting platform, operated by partners Ball Aerospace, Loft Orbital, Thales Alenia Space and Xplore. applied to spaceships.
The hosting platform is designed to allow applications to securely communicate with spacecraft hardware. This allows developers to experiment with code in space.
In order to use the collected images and data for fire detection in remote areas, a large amount of data must be transmitted. The more data and images to transmit to Earth, the longer it will take.
In response, Kitei said, “After processing the data in space, we decided to notify and give a signal to Earth. Azure Orbital provides new tools for developers building applications for multiple spacecraft used by different companies.”