CURRENT AND FUTURE NASA EXPLORATION FLIGHT MISSIONS REQUIRE AVIONICS SYSTEMS, COMPUTERS, CONTROLLERS AND DA…

Public award description

CURRENT AND FUTURE NASA EXPLORATION FLIGHT MISSIONS REQUIRE AVIONICS SYSTEMS, COMPUTERS, CONTROLLERS AND DATA PROCESSING UNITS THAT ARE CAPABLE OF ENDURING EXTREME LOW TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENTS OF DEEP SPACE, LUNAR AND MARTIAN SURFACES. WITH RECENT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN FIELD PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAYS (FPGA), IT HAS BECOME POSSIBLE AND FEASIBLE TO ARCHITECT COMPLETE SYSTEM ON A CHIP (SOC) USING A SINGLE FPGA. LARGE FPGAS HAVE INCREASED NUMBER OF GATES PER SQUARE INCH WITH REDUCED POWER CONSUMPTION PER GATE AND INCLUDE PROCESSORS WITH SOFT AND HARD IPS, ARITHMETIC MODULES, SIZEABLE ONBOARD MEMORY AND A/D INCLUDED. OUR PROPOSAL IN PARTICULAR RESPONDS TO THE TECHNOLOGIES SOUGHT THAT ENABLE NASA'S LONG DURATION MISSIONS TO LOW TEMPERATURE AND WIDE TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENTS. THIS DEVELOPMENT IS REQUIRED UNDER THE TECHNOLOGY PRIORITIZATION LIST FOR EXTREME ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY. AS OUTLINED IN THIS PROPOSAL WE WILL EXPLORE INNOVATIVE APPROACHES AND INTRODUCE NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL ENABLE ENGINEERS TO BUILD HIGH-RELIABILITY AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE, COLD CAPABLE SPACE AND AVIONICS DATA ACQUISITION AND COMPUTERS SYSTEMS THAT ARE ABLE TO OPERATE AND PERFORM IN EXTREME COLD TEMPERATURE RANGE BEYOND THE STANDARD MILITARY SPECIFICATION OF -55 OC, SURVIVING CRYOGENIC TEMPERATURES OVER MISSION LIFE. PROPOSED INNOVATIVE ARCHITECTURE WILL USE AN EXISTING RADIATION TOLERANT/HARDENED FPGA TECHNOLOGY.