State of the Edge Report 2026: Space is the ultimate edge

Connectivity from satellites is now a reality and a surprising number of systems already depend on this, but what are the benefits and limitations and where is edge in space heading — maybe to the moon

Space is the quintessential edge location: remote, poorly and intermittently connected, extremely resource challenged and uniquely environmentally challenged. Using satellites for connectivity has already transformed a range of edge applications on earth and they’ll be necessary for 6G; the next step is moving compute into space. After several years of promises, that’s just starting to become a reality while NASA’s Artemis missions aim to bring the edge to the Moon, with a distant eye on Mars. The challenge of reliable, high performance computing in space is far from solved though — and geopolitical questions add another dimension of complexity. In the meantime, the miniaturization and reliability work done for space may have payoffs for the most challenging environments here on Earth.