NASA has activated its new Athena supercomputer at the Modular Supercomputing Facility in California. The system is located at the Ames Research Center.

Athena delivers 20.13 petaflops of computing power. NASA developed it under the High-End Computing Capability program. The new system replaces the Pleiades supercomputer, which offered 7.09 petaflops. NASA retired Pleiades earlier this month.

System Specifications and Access

Athena uses 1,024 AMD EPYC Turin nodes. It includes 786 terabytes of system memory. NASA will provide access to its scientists and approved external researchers. Eligible users can apply for computing time.

NASA Statement on Athena

NASA Chief Science Data Officer Kevin Murphy said exploration drives the agency to push computing limits. He said Athena helps NASA meet the changing needs of its missions. The new system allows better support for complex research tasks.

Part of NASA’s Supercomputer Fleet

Athena runs on a CPU-based architecture. It now joins NASA’s existing high-performance systems. These include Cabeus, Aitken, Electra, Discover, and Endeavour.

OIG Raises Concerns

A 2024 report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) raised concerns about computing capacity. The report said limited high-end resources slow down several missions. It also noted NASA relies heavily on CPU-based systems. These systems do not always meet advanced workload demands.

The OIG warned that demand exceeds available computing capacity. Many teams request more computing time than NASA can provide. The report recommended forming an executive leadership team. This team would help strengthen and reorganize NASA’s computing infrastructure.