A constellation of cyber-secure satellites that revolve around the Earth transport supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and the cloud. This is the goal of the "Military Space Cloud Architecture" (MILSCA) study project, which was entrusted to Leonardo by the TELEDIFE Contract Directorate of Segredifesa as part of the National Military Research Plan (NMRP). For the first time in Europe, the project aspires to create a space architecture capable of supplying high-performance computing and storage capacity directly in space to government entities and national armed forces, much like the terrestrial cloud. The system, which incorporates cyber security concepts, will provide better speed and flexibility in processing and exchanging information. The Space Cloud, which will be evaluated by creating a digital twin of the architecture, will have the capacity to store more than 100 Terabytes of data generated on Earth and in space aboard each satellite in the constellation. It will be capable of processing more than 250 TFLOPS (250 trillion operations per second) at a single precision, using advanced algorithms that take advantage of artificial intelligence, machine learning techniques, and big data analysis, as well as communicating and exchanging data autonomously with other satellites. Having a secure cyber supercomputer and storage system in space ensures that users can access strategic data such as communication, earth observation, and navigation from anywhere, at any time. Furthermore, a Space Cloud system dramatically decreases the processing time of data handled directly in orbit, allowing for real-time information and facilitating multi-domain and multi-nation activities. Transmission networks will be freed up for other connections as only information of importance to Earth is transferred, and data storage in orbit will also serve as a helpful backup for the Earth's most vulnerable natural disaster areas. Leonardo is leading the project, which also includes the joint ventures Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space. The study will last 24 months and will include a first phase for defining the system architecture and a second phase that will culminate in the development of a digital twin of the satellite with HPC, as well as a demonstrator of the multi-constellation satellite terminal, to simulate the various application scenarios in a digital environment. These experiments will be carried out using Leonardo's supercomputer, the davinci-1, which is one of the world's earliest high-performance computing systems in aerospace and defense. The investigation will serve as a forerunner to a further experimental phase, which, if approved, will include the launch of a constellation of demonstration satellites into orbit.
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