Thales Alenia Space is the coordinator and co-sponsor of a new project called ORCHIDE (Orchestration of Reliable Computing on Heterogeneous Infrastructures Deployed at the Edge), developed within the scope of the European Union’s Horizon Europe program. The Thales Alenia Space-led consortium includes Thales Romania, Tarides (France), the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania) and KP Labs (Poland).
The project aims to develop a spaceborne “orchestration” system that can create, deploy and execute different applications directly in orbit. ORCHIDE will foster the ongoing digitalization of space and advanced edge computing applications.
ORCHIDE kicked off in December 2023 and will play a major role in spotlighting and enhancing European independence in space.
A solution designed to fit different sectors
The ORCHIDE system could be integrated in both Earth observation and environmental monitoring missions. The use of artificial intelligence to analyze images will allow it to support a number of applications: fire detection, monitoring the movement of seaweed, detecting the presence of plastics in the oceans and much more. Furthermore, ORCHIDE will play a vital role in monitoring high-value facilities, a key to global security.
By processing images directly in orbit, the system will only transmit the most pertinent to ground stations. The applications managed by ORCHIDE will help select usable data, eliminating images with poor visibility due to clouds for instance, thus reducing the amount of data transmitted. Processing data on the satellite itself will enable the system to react more quickly to critical events and improve decision-making, while also saving time and money.
© Thales Alenia Space
Thanks to ORCHIDE, space will be democratized. The solution will be open to manufacturers and developers from around the world, allowing them to get involved in the booming space market. They can create their own services and applications and operate them directly in space, significantly enhancing responsiveness.
This enhanced spaceborne management solution will pave the way for a wide range of applications. It could be integrated in many different systems, from stratospheric airships to drones, for instance.
Constituent components
The project itself entails the production of a complete technical solution comprising three main components: a development kit, a management unit and a simulation platform.
The development kit will provide the tools needed to create unikernel type applications A unikernel is a stripped-down operating system that includes only the components needed to ensure the operation of a specific application. This makes it extremely light, quick and secure because it reduces the resources needed and the potential surface for attack. The development kit will be used to structure a workflow, meaning a processing sequence, designed to execute a service comprising several applications to obtain the desired result.
© Thales Alenia Space
The core of this project is the creation of an onboard management unit, allowing the deployment of new applications and supporting the dynamic reconfiguration of the system. This unit will share and allocate available onboard resources to manage priorities between the different objectives.
Project teams will also provide a simulation platform comprising various digital tools to help design the underlying technologies for edge computing in space. The platform will support a feasibility analysis during the design phase, then dynamic configuration during the operating phase.
ORCHIDE project goals
To create a real long-term solution, the consortium has to make sure that the management unit is sufficiently agile and compatible with cloud and edge technologies, as well as with all types of hardware and software.
The onboard management solution has to be as streamlined as possible to optimize the allocation of onboard resources. Given this objective, the development teams are analyzing system engineering in light of eco-design and green IT precepts. Maximizing the number of onboard applications makes the payload more efficient and proactive. It will be able to carry out more functions, thus taking full advantage of the satellite’s onboard processing capacity.
Various “secure by design” functions based on unikernels will be used to design a robust management unit. To further improve the solution’s security, a trusted IT system will be set up, featuring data separation and crypto-protected communications. This will ensure the ORCHIDE solution’s real long-term viability.
The project will culminate in a demonstration, which will validate the operation of hardware and software under space conditions on flight-proven systems. This phase will also entail setting up a representative use case involving an existing image processing application.
A competitiveness driver for the European space industry, the project is now in the scenario definition phase. The actual delivery of the solution is planned for May 2026.
In addition to the ORCHIDE project, Thales Alenia Space is pursuing its Space Edge Computing development strategy, initiated in 2022 in cooperation with Microsoft, and the launch of a demonstration program on board the ISS.
© Thales Alenia Space
For the latest project news and all other information, go to the ORCHIDE site: ORCHIDE (orchide-project.eu)