Space Solutions
Radiation Tolerant Hardware and High Reliability Flight Software
SECURE, RAD-HARD, HIGH-THROUGHPUT, HIGH RELIABILITY
Aeronix offers a variety of engineering services related to spacecraft electronics, and stands ready to contribute systems engineering, processor development, communications and network interface design, FPGAs, and custom ASICs.
Let us apply our expertise to your space applications. Aeronix has 20 years of experience in the space industry and has developed hardware and software for space missions including NPOESS, TACSAT 1&2, LACE, Clementine, Clementine II, HTSSE II, and Windsat.
Software and hardware, radiation-tolerant designs, high-speed, high-reliability data transfer, data handling, and payload support - Aeronix has done it all. Recent examples of our participation in spacecraft systems development include:
- CastellanTM RadT Crypto – A radiation-tolerant programmable cryptographic engine, this product provides programmable cryptographic capabilities for embedment in equipment requiring a comprehensive set of security features, and/or portability across many hardware and software architectures.
- NPOESS – a radiation-hardened 1394 Data Bus Chipset to support a high-speed high-reliability spacecraft network based on COTS technology. Aeronix designed and developed a three-chipset implementation of the IEEE 1394 bus using radiation-hardened components, and a reference platform and reference cards built around the rad-hard 1394 chipset in order to demonstrate performance and capabilities for the NPOESS Integrated Program Office. Aeronix also contributed data-handling payload hardware and software for the NPOESS satellite.
- Windsat - a passive polarimetric microwave radiometer which determines wind vector magnitude and direction, Windsat was designed to study ocean surface physics pertaining to wind and boundary layer conditions. The Aeronix-designed data handling system is dual-purpose: it controls payload spin, and also collects payload and auxiliary data and sends it to the spacecraft bus for downlink, final processing, and interpretation.
- TACSAT 2 - Aeronix produced two modules and another motherboard based on Copperfield 2 designs for a second quick reaction advanced technology space demonstration. The unit contained two IF Receiver channels, and two Automated Information Service (AIS) interfaces.
Aeronix's legacy of spacecraft design services goes back to the 1980s, and includes:
- Clementine, Clementine II – Aeronix provided consulting services in the design of power supply, power grounding, and analog interfaces for these satellite projects.
- LACE – Aeronix produced a multiplexer design to adapt several experiment data streams to an existing payload data formatting unit.
- HTSSE II - Aeronix produced a two channel Digitizer to process signals from a reference channel, and an experiment channel. The experiment channel had multiple High Temperature Superconducting receiver pieces which could be tested in the channel individually, or in various combinations.
- TACSAT1 - Aeronix produced a module and motherboard based on Copperfield 2 designs for a quick reaction advanced technology space demonstration for the Office of Force Transformation. The unit contained primary and backup IF Receiver channels.