Meta And Booz Allen Collaboration Creates Space Llama AI Model For Astronauts On The Space Station

JAKARTA Meta is running a new project with Booz Allen, a US technology consulting firm. The company will launch Llama, an open-source Artificial Intelligence (AI) model, into space.

The project, named Space Llama, relies on the CUDA GPU from NVIDIA so that Meta has succeeded in perfecting the Llama 3.2. This open-source AI will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) to support the research of astronauts.

In addition to using software from NVIDIA, Meta also uses AI technology for the Edge Environment (A2E2) from Booz Allen and Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Spaceborne Computer-2 (HPE) so that the AI model can operate in space.

The combined technology is believed to be able to make Llama 3.2 work quickly with a compact and energy efficient system. The ability of this model in managing tasks is also accelerated for a few minutes to maximize its capabilities.

Thus, astronauts can take advantage of this innovation to support research, make decisions without problems, and access data quickly without having to worry about the risk of losing connectivity when used.

This is just the beginning. We see a future where open-source AI models like Llama will play an important role in encouraging exploration and space research enabling astronauts to conduct next-to-leading-level experiments, said Vice President of Meta and Head of GenAI, Ahmad Al-Dahle.

For more specific capabilities, Space Llama will provide generative and multimodal AIs that support content creation based on orders. This model can process various types of data, including visuals and audio, even in space.

This is a very important function because Space Llama can support astronauts researching. They can retrieve information from reference documents easily to obtain essential techniques or instructions without requiring internet.

"In a limited space environment and communication, the ability to quickly assess, research and solve problems on the plane is the most important thing," said Booz Allen Chief Technical Officer Bill Vass.

The development of Space Llama is also part of Meta's form of support for exploration of the Moon and Mars. Going forward, Meta will support scientific research by empowering satellite and aircraft capabilities as well as the next generation of autonomous systems.