Northrop Grumman Corporation and Luminary Cloud are applying artificial intelligence (AI) to spacecraft propulsion with a new physics AI foundation model capable of rapidly designing a spacecraft thruster nozzle.

“Physics AI is the next level of complexity in AI and Northrop Grumman is bringing this technology to our design engineers to dramatically speed up hardware development,” said Han Park, vice president, artificial intelligence integration, Northrop Grumman Space Systems. “Using AI to make something small, like a spacecraft thruster, puts us on a path to do much bigger things, like using AI to design larger components or even an entire spacecraft.”

Using Luminary Cloud’s Physics AI platform, with help from NVIDIA’s Computer Aided Engineering product team, Northrop Grumman will leverage its decades of experience in propulsion physics to build an AI foundation model capable of designing a higher-performing spacecraft thruster nozzle. Through the ground-breaking collaboration with Luminary Cloud, Northrop Grumman continues to leverage NVIDIA’s expertise to accelerate development of AI in our advanced systems.

"It is something special to help Northrop Grumman supercharge innovation on complex spacecraft system design with NVIDIA technology," said Tim Costa, Director of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. "Northrop Grumman has demonstrated the power of NVIDIA's accelerated computing by using Luminary Cloud's Physics AI platform to build and deploy a model for rapid thruster nozzle design optimization."

Northrop Grumman, Luminary Cloud and NVIDIA continue to push the boundaries of innovation and lay the foundation for breakthroughs in space, from optimizing propulsion systems to developing next-generation spacecraft. By embracing AI-driven solutions, Northrop Grumman remains at the forefront of delivering transformative technologies for missions of tomorrow.

Click here to learn more about Northrop Grumman's Propulsion Technologies

Click here to learn more about Luminary Cloud's Physics AI Platform