Since its start Blockchain has attracted a lot of technology enthusiast and NASA is no exception to it. The famed space agency has granted $330,000 to the scientist at University of Akron in order to explore the potential of Blockchain technology to advance space communications.

The research is led by Dr. Jin Wei Kocsis, the assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Akron, seeking to develop a paradigm of computing and resilient networks (RNCP) for space exploration.

The research team plans to launch RNCP taking advantage of a number of cutting-edge technologies, including the Ethereum blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning methods.

From the note of University official site states that,

The research in Blockchain technology will be used to design a secure and decentralized infrastructure for the processing of massive data for space exploration and related science. In addition, to achieve high scalability for blockchain-based infrastructure, the software-defined network (SDN) technique will be exploited and an adaptive management strategy will be proposed.

The outcome of this research will help the NASA spacecraft to operate more autonomously than it does today, requiring less instruction from mission control to undertake some tasks and thereby freeing scientists on the ground to devote more of their attention to other matters.