NASA, Microsoft partner for Quantum in space missions

As complex space missions take flight, managing communications has been challenging for NASA. To communicate efficiently, NASA has collaborated with Microsoft for its Azure Quantum.

"As NASA launches more frequent and complex missions into space, managing communications with the growing number of spacecraft is becoming increasingly challenging. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has turned to Azure Quantum to explore ways to communicate more efficiently with spacecraft exploring our solar system and beyond.

JPL communicates with space missions through the Deep Space Network (DSN), a global network of large radio antennae located in California, Spain, and Australia that allows constant communication with spacecraft as the earth rotates," stated company blog.

Microsoft states in the blog, in the beginning the team recorded a runtime of two hours or more to produce a schedule. The Azure Quantum application reduced the time needed to 16 minutes and custom solution reduced it even further to two minutes.

"While this JPL and NASA deep space network scheduling problem may seem out of this world for most, scheduling is a common challenge across industries. This is a job-shop scheduling problem, in which jobs are assigned to resources as efficiently as possible. These challenges are commonly found in manufacturing supply chains, health care, transportation, and logistics," states the company blog.