Space electronics designers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in Tokyo needed radiation-hardened embedded computing to support instruments aboard the second Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT-2). They found their solution from Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y.
JAXA and Mitsubishi installed the DDC SCS750 single-board computer aboard the GOSAT-2 satellite, which launched last October from the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island south of Kyushu Island, Japan.
As of late October, the satellite had completed its critical operations phase, moved into its operational phase, and has been operating since then.
DDC provided the Harris Corp. Electronic Systems segment in Fort Wayne, Ind. -- a subcontractor to JAXA -- with two flight-qualified SCS750 computer boards for one of the key environmental sensor instruments on the satellite -- the Thermal and Near Infrared Sensor for Carbon Observation-Fourier Transform Spectrometer-2 (TANSO-FTS-2).
This instrument that will measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and collect high-spectral resolution data of the Earth in five bands, which enables measurement during daylight and darkness. The instrument's intelligent pointing system identifies, in real time, cloud-free areas of the atmosphere to increase the amount of useable data.
DDC's SCS750 single-board computers use silicon-on-insulator PowerPC processors and radiation-hardened parts, including DDC's RAD-PAK memories, with triple-redundant processing algorithms that provide error detection and correction.
These boards have single-event-upset (SEE) performance of less than one error in 80 years. They can resist 100 kilorads of total-dose space radiation, and are immune to single-event latchup (SEL).
The 6U CompactPCI SCS750 computer boards support SpaceWire, CompactPCI, and MIL-STD-1553 interfaces, and provide as much as 64 gigabytes of error-protected NAND Flash memory. These boards provide single-event upset (SEE) performance of less than one error in 80 years, and can withstand the effects of 100 kilorads of total-dose radiation.