NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has selected Microchip Technology to develop a High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor with “at least 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers.”
The computer processor would be used for future space missions, including planetary exploration, lunar lander and Mars surface missions, NASA said on Aug. 15.
“This cutting-edge spaceflight processor will have a tremendous impact on our future space missions and even technologies here on Earth,” says Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation within the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This effort will amplify existing spacecraft capabilities and enable new ones and could ultimately be used by virtually every future space mission, all benefiting from more capable flight computing.”
Microchip is to architect, design and deliver the HPSC processor over three years as part of a $50 million firm-fixed-price contract, NASA says. Microchip will also contribute internal research and development funds to the creation of the processor. NASA initially solicited proposals for an advanced radiation-hardened computing chip in 2021.
The processor is designed to be more efficient and flexible, able to scale up or down computing power based on mission needs.
“Current space-qualified computing technology is designed to address the most computationally-intensive part of a mission–a practice that leads to overdesigning and inefficient use of computing power,” NASA says. “For example, a Mars surface mission demands high-speed data movement and intense calculation during the planetary landing sequence.”
However, Microchip’s HPSC will allow for certain processing functions to be turned off when not in use, reducing power consumption. An example is during routine spacecraft movements and science operations when fewer calculations and tasks per second are required.
“The design also will be more reliable and have a higher fault tolerance,” NASA adds.
The new processor will also allow for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning computations to be carried out. It may eventually have applications outside the space industry, including for use in industrial automation, edge computing, time-sensitive Ethernet data transmission, AI, and internet-of-things gateways, NASA say.
“Our current spaceflight computers were developed almost 30 years ago,” says Wesley Powell, NASA’s principal technologist for advanced avionics. “While they have served past missions well, future NASA missions demand significantly increased onboard computing capabilities and reliability. The new computing processor will provide the advances required in performance, fault tolerance, and flexibility to meet these future mission needs.”
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