Marcus S. Murbach

Marcus S. Murbach’s research at NASA Ames Research Center demonstrates that advanced artificial intelligence architectures can operate reliably within the radiation and power constraints of spaceflight. As Principal Investigator for the TechEdSat-13 mission (NASA Technical Reports Server, document 20220005780), he led the team that placed an Intel Loihi 1 neuromorphic chip into low Earth orbit in January 2022.

The mission established that event-driven spiking neural networks can sustain on-orbit Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP) and autonomous packet routing with minimal shielding (2 mm aluminum) without suffering fatal Single Event Effects (SEEs). His findings provide the empirical foundation for deploying distributed, low-power neuromorphic and cognitive processing systems beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Known for. Principal Investigator of the TechEdSat satellite series, pioneering the first orbital flight of a neuromorphic processor (TechEdSat-13 / Loihi 1)

Coverage on this site

• Radiation hardening and whether a conscious architecture can survive orbit August 2026

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Marcus S. Murbach is listed with the other builders, who hold that the claim is about what the hardware does, and the philosophy is left open. The positions themselves are set out in the index of consciousness theories. Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers.