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U.S. bill names North Korea, Iran among countries of concern in AI cybersecurity pushApple releases iOS 27.2 with Siri AI memory, dual-camera FaceTime and 329 security fixesMeta Plans Up to $95 Billion Stock Sale to Fund AI Data Center BuildoutInstagram Tests 90-Minute 'Features' Videos in YouTube ChallengeThieves Use GPS Spoofing to Steal $100 Million in Data Center CargoTiny Corp's Nvidia Tinybox Orders Unavailable; Six-GPU AMD Build Costs $3,000 More
AI Chips & Compute

HPE to send Spaceborne Computer 4 to Moon on Astrolab FLIP rover

HPE will send its fourth Spaceborne Computer to the Moon on Astrolab's FLIP rover for a year-long AI and HPC mission.

AI News Feed · 2026-10-27 06:42

The system is to arrive on the Moon via the Voyager Technologies Griffin-1 lander after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Once deployed, the Spaceborne Computer 4 will be assigned AI and high-performance computing tasks to assist the rover's mission and could become the fastest supercomputer on the Moon, according to the report.

HPE, the enterprise-focused part of the former Hewlett-Packard that was split into separate companies in 2015 and operates from Texas, has supplied orbital computing systems for the International Space Station. Its Spaceborne Computer series began with Spaceborne Computer 1, which joined the ISS in 2017. Later iterations were used to prove reliable operation in microgravity, edge computing and AI processing of scientific data, TechRadar reported.

The fourth-generation system will use a low-powered CPU and 1TB of mirrored storage across a pair of Kiovia SSDs. TechRadar reported that the exact specification of the Spaceborne Computer 4 is being kept under wraps, apparently because of concerns over hardware failure. The earlier Spaceborne Computer 3, launched on Jan. 30, 2024, for deployment on the ISS, had what the report described as unprecedented computer and memory power for an orbital mission, along with 130TB of storage. The Spaceborne Computer 4 has less storage and measures 5 by 10 inches with a depth of about 1 inch; its smaller capacity reflects weight restrictions for cislunar travel.

HPE's Spaceborne Computer program is joining other projects within NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, according to TechRadar. While the specific role of the Spaceborne Computer 4 in the mission is not known, the system will provide local edge compute. With a time delay for data processing back on Earth, having the computer on the rover is intended to make it easier to process telemetry data and other information gathered by the FLIP rover.

Astrolab CEO Jaret Matthews told The Register, in comments cited by TechRadar, that it is important to send insight back to Earth rather than all the raw data whenever possible, and that local edge compute capability can process raw data and save on bandwidth back to Earth.