PROPOSAL NUMBER: | 05 T1.01-9742 |
RESEARCH SUBTOPIC TITLE: | Information Technologies for System Health Management, Autonomy, and Scientific Exploration |
PROPOSAL TITLE: | Triple3 Redundant Spacecraft Subsystems (T3RSS) |
SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (SBC): | RESEARCH INSTITUTION (RI): | ||
NAME: | Redefine Technologies | NAME: | The Regents of the University of Colorado |
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ADDRESS: | 44 Linn Lane | ADDRESS: | UCB 572, 3100 Marine Street, Room 481 |
CITY: | Golden | CITY: | Boulder |
STATE/ZIP: | CO 80403-9708 | STATE/ZIP: | CO 80309-0572 |
PHONE: | (720) 317-5182 | PHONE: | (303) 492-6221 |
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER
(Name,Email)
Steven A Wichman
steve@redefine.com
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Redefine Technologies, along with researchers at the University of Colorado, will use three redundancy methods to decrease the susceptibility of a spacecraft, on a mission survivability level, to electronic failures anywhere throughout the spacecraft. By using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips, we will analyze the spacecraft-wide benefits of:
*triplicating the logic and RAM on-board each subsystem using a Xilinx proprietary Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) tool;
*triplicating the persistent memory storage (i.e. ROM, science data, and flight code) on-board each subsystem using various methods specific for the space environment; and,
*triplicating the backup architecture itself, while reducing weight and volume requirements, so subsystem code can run on alternate processors if any component is rendered inoperable due to an electronic failure (radiation, manufacturing, human-error, etc).
These three methods of triplication should significantly increase the reliability of non-radiation hardened designs, which should allow commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processing components to be used as flight critical hardware. The analysis that is performed will predict the total benefit of this approach to any future spacecraft.
POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The benefit to NASA for funding this research is an increased mission survivability level for all its spacecraft. By integrating redundancy on multiple levels throughout the spacecraft, mission critical functions can be migrated around to make the most efficient use of the resources available and to avoid damaged resources. Interplanetary missions to support putting humans on the Moon and Mars will become more flexible and responsive (i.e. quicker to develop) than ever before. The faster, better, cheaper strategy will become more feasible.
While radiation tolerant devices will maintain an essential role in spacecraft design, having the cheaper and more state-of-the-art options of COTS products available and using this research to make them more palatable to the industry, will decrease satellite turn-around time in terms of the testing and specialized design knowledge required.
In addition, more University satellites will be taught to use this COTS technology because it's already in their schools through the Xilinx University Program (which is available to all higher-learning institutions). These students are NASA's future workforce and moving NASA's component selection closer to COTS aligns well with the students' education and will ease the transition into their future NASA careers.
POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Redefine Technologies will closely investigate the patentability of all claims related to this research. The code distribution methods under consideration are marketable, either as an off-the-shelf product that can be sold to spacecraft system manufacturers or as services provided by Redefine Technologies in its normal consulting business.
As mentioned earlier, the Spacecraft Benchmark Software Code (SBSC) will be made available on the Redefine Technologies' website for all to use and compare designs against. This standalone product of the Phase I research will follow the same business philosophy as personal computer benchmark tests or products under the GNU Public License. This code set will be improved upon over time and used industry-wide as a standardized test platform. It will solidify the redundancy technology proposed here, create healthy competition that will result in better and better products, and it will further standardize spacecraft design.
NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA. |
TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
|
Autonomous Reasoning/Artificial Intelligence
Computer System Architectures Highly-Reconfigurable On-Board Computing and Data Management Radiation-Hard/Resistant Electronics |