The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a grant of $330,000 to scientists at the University of Akron to explore the potential of blockchain technologies in improving communications in space.

Coinsquare reported that Dr. Jen Wei, Dr. Jin Wei Kocsis, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Akron, is leading a team of researchers seeking to develop a Resilient Networking and Computing Paradigm (RNCP) for space exploration.

“Dr. Jin Wei Kocsis, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected for a prestigious NASA Early Career Faculty grant. This three-year grant totals $333,000,” an online post on the University of Akron’s website reads. “The work done by Kocsis will advance cognitive communications for NASA science and exploration by developing a resilient networking and computing paradigm that will improve the efficiency of space communications.”

The research team plan to launch RNCP by leveraging a number of cutting-edge technologies, including Ethereum blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and deep learning methods. A synopsis of the research states:

“We will employ the blockchain technique to design a secure and decentralized infrastructure for processing the massive data for space exploration and related science. Our infrastructure will be designed to facilitate deep learning based data analysis. Furthermore, to achieve high scalability for the blockchain-based infrastructure, we will exploit the software-defined networking (SDN) technique and propose an adaptive management strategy.”

“We will evaluate the performance of RNCP in various space communication environments, such as the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and deep space. To achieve this goal, we will use Tensorflow, Matlab/Simulink, Ethereum Blockchain, and Mininet to implement our secure and decentralized computing and data analysis infrastructure.”