In my last blog I mentioned that
the capabilities of Big Data Analytics has pushed several companies and
processes well beyond what was thought to be possible just a few years ago. One
of the areas that I mentioned is space exploration. This blog will focus on how
space exploration has been greatly impacted by big data analysis. This has not
only expanded what data is collected but also how much to collect.
Prior to having the capability
to analyze endless amounts of data, we were only able to gain a small amount of
knowledge from the vast amounts of data being collected from satellites,
telescopes, various other space vehicles (which includes manned and unmanned). Now
we can pick out every little detail if we need the information. This helps us
gain a better understanding about our planet as well as what may be possible in
the future for manned space travel. This could help lead us to people living on
Mars but that would be many years from now.
There are several projects that
are or will be using big data analysis that deal with the analyzing the deep
dark depths of outer space. One such project is the Large Synoptic Survey
Telescope (LSST) project. According to Astrophysicist and Chair of Information
and Statistics for LSST Kirk Borne, the main problem isn’t in storing the data
or the volume of data; instead it is pulling out useful information from the
data. According to the article, “Space: the Big Data Frontier,” LSST will
produce several hundred petabytes of data. This is due to the large amounts of
data collected from each picture taken. Each photo is estimated to contain
around six gigabytes of information. The following quote from Borne really puts
how much data is being collected into perspective: “Imagine if I gave a student
600,000 CDs of data, and I said come back tomorrow and I’ll have 600,000 more
for you. And come back the next day, and the next day, and the next day for the
next ten years. Every one of those days I’ll have 600,000 more for you.” If you
wish to read more about LSST the following article provides great information
about the project.
Space:
the Big Data Frontier
Another project using Big Data
to look at outer space is the Square Kilometer Array or SKA Project. This will be the world’s largest and most
sensitive radio telescope. It combines the signals from the antennas in each
all regions located in Australia and in Southern Africa to create a telescope
with the collecting equivalent of a dish the size of one square kilometer. According
to Dougal Watt, Chief Technology Officer of IBM New Zealand the objective of
this project is, “to make astronomers more efficient and productive, so they
can spend time being creative. It’s pretty disheartening for an astronomer to
have to learn the syntax and structure of a catalogue and then have to do these
very time-consuming tasks. It’d be much better to give them more time for
original research.” In order to accomplish this goal they have calibrated the
SKA using real astronauts so that it already thinks like astronomy experts. This
level of automation provides astronauts and scientists more time for research. If you would like to read more information
about SKA please check out the links below.
IBM
Explores Big Data… In Outer Space
The
Square Kilometer Array
Chris,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. Thank you for the thorough analysis and pointing out all these references.
Fadel