Is NASA's design opportunity for FPGAs in
space vanishing in favor of privatized
platforms?
Loring Wirbel - July 10, 2013
Not so long ago, the opportunities for rad-hardened FPGAs used in space applications rested with
the Defense Department or NASA. The rise of privatized launches and open-architecture
microsatellites like CubeSat, however, have made NASA design-ins the exception rather than the
rule.
This reality was drilled home in late June as 4DSP LLC announced a $42,479 contract from NASA's
Langley Research Center, to use 3U CompactPCI cards based on a Virtex-6 as part of a terrestrial
platform to test space instruments. Only a few years ago, NASA and Air Force contracts utilizing
FPGAs were commonplace. Now, it's time for microsatellites designed by academia and private
industry.
There is not a strict delineation between the two realms.
NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Air
Force are experimenting with designs like CubeSat and
FalconSat. But government contracts have long relied on
proprietary satellite buses such as A2100 and STARbus.
Open, simplified platforms have had to challenge highvalue architectures promoted by gigantic aerospace
corporations. Thus, startups and coalitions in the
privatized launch and satellite realms have been able to
move to new bus and module architectures with less
concern for legacy architectures.
We cited one example of the popular new CubeSat at the
end of last year, when the University of Michigan
announced an MCube2 satellite design based on Xilinx FPGAs. Since that time, the floodgates for
FPGAs in the CubeSat community have opened.
Here's just a few examples of what we are seeing:
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COSMIAC (Configurable Space Microsystems Innovations & Applications Center) in Albuquerque
is offering designers a Spartan-based set of boards for software-defined radio and other space
applications.
A University of Florida team is working on energy-budget allocations for the Virtex-4QF used in
CubeSat environments.
The EADS Astrium payload for the UKube 1 CubeSat in the UK will be based on a Virtex-4
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architecture.
NASA itself is getting involved in a Virtex-5QV on-board processor for CubeSat called COVE
(CubeSat On-board processing Validation Experiment). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is
working with several private and academic groups on improving core processing for CubeSat
platforms.
The last example shows that NASA need not work at cross-purposes to emerging independent efforts
to build microsatellites. Rather, collaborations with schools and startups may allow NASA to conduct
core research more cheaply, while exploring cost-effective alternatives to government launch
platforms, such as rockets from Space X. In the new world, FPGAs may have more opportunity to
end up in orbit, because designs need not be limited to strapped federal agencies currently facing
sequestration.
Also see:
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Morse Code in orbit
Michigan CubeSat Researchers to Send FPGA Satellite Into Space