Nvidia's Jetson AI Board Is Ready to Go to Space

Aitech, a maker of rugged computers for military, aerospace and space applications, has tapped Nvidia's Jetson TX2i system-on-module (SoM) for a new radiation-characterized system, it announced recently. The Aitech S-A1760 Venus is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) system that can be used for spacecraft and small satellites and takes advantage of around 1 FP32 TFLOPS of "AI performance," as Nvidia puts it. There is a growing need for advanced imaging and data processing in various space applications, but equipping a small satellite with a high-performance, rad-hardened computer is extremely expensive, since tiny satellites are supposed to be light and tiny. This is where Aitech's S-A1760 Venus system comes into play. According to the Aitech, the S-A1760 Venus is targets "short duration spaceflight" as well as near earth orbit (NEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite applications.