From his laboratory at NASA, Dr. Leon Alkalai develops braking technologies
Viruses and website protection. Pictured: Viking 1 landing on Mars, June
.'76 Even with the technology of 25 years ago, NASA managed to maintain lines
Active communication 6 years in a row
By Yuval Dror
The American Space Agency, whose annual budget amounts to 14
billion dollars, is not only about trying to reach faraway places
In the universe, but also, and perhaps mainly, she tries to find the secret of life, a secret
The solar system, the secret of the universe and its destiny. This is what Dr. Leon Alkalai, director, believes
The Institute for Technological Integration in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion (JPL) of NASA.
In order to decipher so many secrets, he explains, NASA needs to invest
Several hundred million dollars in planning trips to deep space (Space
Deep), which will last decades and will be managed by computerized systems.
Systems, whose design is in charge of Alkalai, will have to deal with the conditions
which do not even appear in the margins of the technical specifications of ordinary computers.
Last week, Alkalai arrived in Israel to participate in the DECUS conference
Compaq users) the 20th held in Tel Aviv. Alkalai's role is
To think ahead, and develop technologies and ideas that sound fictional.
Computers based on quantum mechanics, on molecules or on
Sophisticated telescopes are only a small part of the projects we are working on
The engineers under his management.
Space systems are based on technologies of a different kind. They must survive the
The terrible shock of the moment of launch, to be resistant to the constant shelling of
cosmic radiation, and finally, after the spacecraft releases the lander
On a strange alien planet, the systems are required to deal with temperature changes
Extremists. "If we were to land only in places where the temperature is minus
100 degrees, this is half narrow. But when there are differences of tens of degrees
Between day and night, as on Mars, the problems become much more serious:
The materials shrink and expand, and sometimes there is a difference of many degrees
with height differences of several tens of centimeters," explains Alkalai.
Alkalai and his team are required to answer all these problems: "NASA is coming."
With a list of requirements and we have to fulfill them: comply with the laws of physics
and break them if there is no choice." All this is also true for discarded computers
For space: they need to be tough and complex, reliable, tiny and lightweight
Power (only 10 watts). In addition, they are completely autonomous, you know
to repair themselves if necessary and continue to function even if they broke down.
Alkalai has another problem: in recent years, the taxpayers have been demanding
In the US, NASA will spend less money on space exploration. What to do? Alkalai:
"We buy intellectual properties developed by others. for example,
Because the existing standard for connecting peripheral equipment to a computer is the PCI standard
We acquired the rights to it, made some changes and made it part
from our technology. In the last journey to Mars (PathFinder) we used
in a Motorola modem to connect the space vehicle to the lander."
In a few years, NASA will send a spacecraft to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons,
to photograph the star in preparation for landing a space vehicle on its surface. in the space vehicle
Whoever participates in the landing mission will integrate a PowerPC computer and in one of the missions
The future will also include a computer based on a Pentium processor, and this later
that Intel donated its technology to NASA.
Not long ago, NASA split off a company called RainFinity, the developer
Reliable and cheap computers. "We are able to develop reliable systems,
Ability to handle huge loads, isolate a problem and prevent it
spread out".
This technology could stop the viruses that spread at the speed of light
throughout the Internet, to improve the network infrastructure and prevent website crashes.
The question of stability is not the only area in which NASA touches the Internet.
"Do you think you have a bandwidth problem? We have a bandwidth problem."
Alkalai claims excitedly.
Today, spacecraft transmit at low frequencies (RF) capable of transmitting little
information in every broadcast and require the establishment of huge satellite dishes on Earth.
In their place, says Alkalai, NASA is developing a system based on a laser,
which will enable faster transfer of information. But there is a small problem: how
Aim a laser beam millions of kilometers away so that it hits precisely
In the space vehicle? The solution should be found by Alkali and his engineers.
When Alkalai was asked what the computer that appears "in his wet dreams", he
Laughing: "A wet computer, of course." In his opinion, in about 15 years we will reach the end
The ability to calculate on silicon chips, then computers will flourish
The biological: "The human body is one big biological computer. Every cell knows
to replicate, DNA that produces an enzyme or protein, that gives instructions to another cell,
And so on. I am convinced that the computers of the future will be based on molecules,
on nanotechnology". And what will be the operating system of the molecules?
"We will wait for the end of Microsoft's trial," says Alkalai.
{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 25/6/2000{
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