​What will NASA be doing with its new quantum computer?  Earlier
this year, NASA, in partnership with Google, acquired the
world's largest quantum computer. But just what does the space
agency plan to do with a device with such revolutionary
potential? We talked to one of their lead researchers to find
out.  Above: Artistic impression of an exoplanet. Once scaled-up
sufficiently, NASA will use its quantum computers to scan the
copious amounts of data acquired by Kepler and other space
telescopes to identify distant planets like this one. Credit:
IAU/L. Calçada  I spoke to Dr. Rupak Biswas, deputy director of
the Exploration Technology Directorate at NASA's Ames Research
Center in Silicon Valley. Biswas and his team are hammering away
at a D-Wave quantum system that's currently crunching away at a
modest 512 qubits. It may be small, but it became clear during
our conversation that NASA has big plans for quantum computation
— plans that will involve everything from managing huge
repositories of data through to