How to design an edge computing system for space

In 1962, when astronaut John Glenn was preparing for an orbital mission, mathematician Katherine Johnson was called by the US space agency Nasa for an important task: calculating trajectories. According to Nasa's website, the complexity of the orbital flight, which would make Glenn the first American to orbit Earth, required the construction of a communications network that would link tracking stations around the world to computers in Washington, Florida and Bermuda. These computers were programmed with orbital equations that would control the trajectory of Glenn's Friendship 7 spacecraft. But these machines were also prone to glitches. So, Glenn asked engineers to enlist Johnson to run the same numbers through the same equations programmed into the computer, but by hand, on a desktop mechanical calculating machine.