Spaceborne Electronics and Computer Systems

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Spaceborne Electronics and Computer Systems
TU Braunschweig Kontakt Prof. Dr. H. Michalik,
h.michalik_at_tu-bs.de, Tel. [phone]
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RD Activities

• Digital Processing Units for Spaceborne
  Instrumentation
• High Speed, High Capacity Semiconductor Mass
  Storages
• Configurable High Level On-Board Software
• Configurable Electronic Ground Support Equipments
  
• Radiation Testing and Reliability Analyses

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Design of Spaceborne Computers

uP-Approach Roadmap
Commercial - static DSPs - dynamic DSPs - Risc
processors
Conventional (rad hard) - ERC32 - Temic 21020 -
follow ons
Custom VHDL cores in HD FPGAs e.g. LEON, Open
Risc, MIPS
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Spaceborne Computers, Examples

• Instrument DPUs, e.g.
• Cameras (ROSETTA, Venus Express, SMART-1)
• Particle Spectrometers (Cluster, ACE, ROSETTA)

in Co-operations mit MPAe, DLR, PHI Bern, Univ
Maryland and others
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Spaceborne Electronics Design - Examples
Digital Processing Units, Conventional Approach
Rosina DPU dedicated for the Electronic Particle
Instrument ROSINA on the ESA Rosetta
Mission based on TEMIC 21020 appr. 3W, 3kg
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Spaceborne Electronics Design - Examples
Digital Processing Units, System-on-a-chip
Approach

• Micro DPU dedicated for VMC Micro-camera on Venus
  Express
• based on LEON CPU Core in Xilinx FPGA (20MIPS)
• complete DPU with CPU, up to 2Gbit SDRAM, 32 Mbit
  SRAM, 16Mbit PROM/EEPROM, S/C (RTU, 1355) and
  Sensor Interfaces
• on 4 PCBs within appr. 80x80x40mm volume, appr.
  300g
• Next Generation with improved performance under
  design for US Dawn Mission (lifetime 15 years,
  mission critical functions)

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Spaceborne Electronics Design - Examples
Specialized Digital Preprocessing Units
Precise Digital Time Measurement Power 100 mW
(_at_30kHz Event rate) Board Space 50 cm2 Weight
40 gr Time range 0 ... 6 ?s Time precision 60
ps max. Event rate 400 kHz
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Spaceborne Electronics Design - Examples
Semiconductor Mass Memory Modules

• High Capacity and High Speed Memory Modules
• radiation tolerant, high reliability
• standard Interfaces
• up to 128 Gbit/Board
• 2 Gbit/s data rate, shareable between different
  in-/outputs,
• OHMA board size (appr. dual Eurocard)
• 0.75 kg, lt16 W at full speed
• Current Activities NV-Technology (Flash/MRAM)
• In Co-operation with EADS-Astrium

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Configurable On-Board Software

• On-board-Command Language (OCL), a new approach
  for operational control of instruments
  (Rosetta/OSIRIS) and platforms (GOCE,
  Herschel-Planck)
• Flexibility Upload of ground compiled scripts
  (UDPs)
• Safety Execution by virtual machines
• Easy to use Upload supported by tools

Patches Small upload size High execution
speed High flexibility Loss of safety High effort
during mission Expensive to use
Telecommands Very small upload size High
execution speed Only slightly flexible High
safety Small effort during mission Easy to use
OCL System Upload of small blocks of token
code sufficient execution speed High
flexibility High safety Small effort during
mission Easy to use
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OCL-System
SDB
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Configurable Ground Support Equipment

• PC/Windows based systems with dedicated Plug-In
  cards for Sensor and S/C Interface Simulations
• High Speed Processing capability using 512Mbyte/s
  PCI technology and dual processor systems
• Configurable software using Ground Support
  Equipment Operating System GSEOS 5
• Can be used throughout complete development cycle
  of DPU/Instrument/Unit up to mission operation
  and data evaluation

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Example for GSE Configuration
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Block Diagram of In Situ Radiation Test Bed
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Contributions to Active Missions

• ACE (NASA)
• S3DPU (3 Ion Spectrometers M, M/Q, direction)
• CASSINI/HUYGENS (ESA)
• H/W Image Data Compression DISR Camera (Surface
  of Titan)
• DPU Magnetometer (Magnetic Field of Saturn and
  Titan)
• GEOTAIL (ISAS/NASA)
• DPU EPIC-Instrument (Ion Spectrometer M, M/Q,
  direction)
• DPU HEP-LD-Instrument (Ion Spectrometer M,
  direction)
• SOHO (ESA)
• DPU CELIAS Instrument (3 Ion Spectrometers M,
  M/Q, direction)
• Image Integration Memory of SUMER-Instrument (IR
  Telescope)
• WIND (NASA)
• DPU SMS-Instrument (2 Ion Spectrometers, M, M/Q,
  direction)
• ULYSSES (ESA)
• DPU SWICS Instrument (active gt 15 years) (Ion
  Spectrometer)
• CLUSTER II (ESA)
• DPU RAPID-Instrument (Ion Spectrometer, M,
  direction)
• MAG Snapshot Memory, Solid State Recorder 1.25
  Gbyte
• INTEGRAL (ESA)

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Contributions to Future Missions

• ROSETTA (ESA)
• OSIRIS DPU DPU-S/W, MASS MEMORY, EGSE
• DPU ROSINA (2 Ion Spectrometers, M, M/Q,
  direction), EGSE
• SOLID STATE MASS MEMORY MODULES (ESA, DLR)
• for use in CLUSTER, ENVISAT, METOP, GRACE, CHAMP,
  CryoSat, TerraSAR-X, 1 - 128 GByte
• MARS EXPRESS (ESA)
• DIGTOF Unit of the ASPERA Instrument (Digital
  Time of Flight Measurement), Solid State Mass
  Memory
• VENUS EXPRESS (ESA)
• DIGTOF Unit of the ASPERA Instrument (Digital
  Time of Flight Measurement), SSMM, DPU HW, SW and
  EGSE for VMC-Camera
• GOCE (ESA) and Herschel Planck (ESA)
• OCL-Software System for Platform Payload
  Application SW
• EGSEs
• TerrSAR-X SSMM, CryoSat SSMM, VMC
• GSEOS 5 Configurable S/W for Experiment Ground
  Support Equipment
• running under Windows NT, used for numerous space
  instruments and small satellites)

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Selected Contributions to Previous Missions

• CODAG (Uni. Jena, DARA)
• DPU CODAG (Dust Aggregation under Microgravity)
• MARS PATHFINDER (NASA)
• S/W "Image Data Compression"
• GIOTTO
• DPU Halley Multicolour Camera
• GALILEO-PROBE
• DPU Lightning and Radio Wave Detector Energetic
  Particle Investigation
• AMPTE
• DPU CHEM Ion Spectrometer
• Hubble-Teleskop (NASA/ESA)
• Image Compression Memory of the Faint Object
  Camera

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Weitere Aktivitäten

• Studie für die ESA Crypto Systems for
  EO-Applications
• Anforderungsanalyse
• Auswahl geeigneter Verfahren
• Kompatibilität zu bestehenden Protokollen
• Beispielimplementierung
• Ziel Empfehlungen für Standardisierungen von
  Crypto-Systemen in Sensorsatelliten
• In Kooperation mit DSI GmbH, Bremen