Space Applications

• Computer Chip Runs Mars Pathfinder, Commercial Satellites

Funding from BMDO allowed the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL; Albuquerque, NM), formerly Phillips Laboratory, to modify a commercially available computer processor chip for use in BMDO surveillance satellites. Since then, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL; Pasadena, CA) has used the new chip to build a flight computer powerful enough to run the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft. Among its many features, the chip can perform as many as 35 million instructions per second and requires only 100 milliwatts of power per million instructions. Using the chip, the Mars Pathfinder flight computer runs 20 times faster—at one-tenth the weight—than its predecessor used for the Cassini spacecraft. In addition, the new chip is on board several orbiting commercial satellites, including those in Loral’s Globalstar constellation. A panel of space experts considers AFRL’s chip the most significant technical contribution to space technology during the past decade.

• Solar Concentrator Provides More Power for Deep Exploration Spacecraft

With funding from NASA and BMDO, ENTECH, Inc. (Keller, TX), developed a solar concentrator that could lower the cost and increase the efficiency of photovoltaic systems. Like a magnifying glass, the device concentrates light onto a small area of solar cells, greatly enhancing their power efficiencies. Because considerably less cell area is required compared with conventional arrays, tremendous cost savings in space power applications can be realized. An array of 720 ENTECH solar concentrators is currently providing 2,500 watts of power for NASA’s New Millennium Deep Space 1 probe, launched in October 1998. Most of this power is being used by an electric propulsion system that enabled the probe to visit the asteroid Braille in July 1998. With the solar concentrators performing flawlessly, the probe is currently moving toward a planned encounter with a comet.

• Interconnect Technology Allows Dense Electronics Aboard Spacecraft

High-density interconnect technology initially developed by General Electric’s Corporate Research and Development Center (Schenectady, NY) could make radiation-hardened electronics smaller, lighter, and cheaper for BMDO satellite constellations. This technology, now owned by Lockheed Martin (LM; Moorestown, NJ), can benefit onboard space computing, power devices, sensing computers, and computerchips. It has already been incorporated into LM’s most advanced satellite model, the A2100, which has been used for five telecommunications satellites. For NASA, it has been designed into the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Deep Space 1 satellites.