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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Office of the Chief Technologist

Office of the Chief Technologist

Two Columns

Feature

Faster Data Rates and Cheaper Access to Space Promised

Two emerging technologies that developers will demonstrate on a Terrier Improved Orion sounding rocket flight early next year may ultimately give researchers what they need most: Faster data rates and less expensive access to space.

Early next year, the Wallops Flight Facility plans to launch its homegrown Suborbital Technology Carrier (SubTEC), the fourth in a series of launches for the payload canister that Wallops engineers developed to help mature emerging technologies faster.

SubTEC-4’s primary payload is a high data-rate telemetry system that transmits 384 megabits of data per second using the X-band frequency — a substantially improved rate over the 60 megabits per second now available on the S-band frequency used by sounding rockets. “This is a five- to six-fold increase in the data rate,” said Principal Investigator Steven Bundick. “For years, the sounding rocket community has said that it needed higher data rates. With this system, we can meet that need.”

A critical component of the system is the Goddard-developed SpaceCube processor, which is equipped with Xilinx Virtex-5 field programmable gate arrays, including two commercially available power PC cores that overcome radiation upsets through software techniques. Twenty-five times faster than the current state-of-the-art microprocessor, SpaceCube will capture simulated data and transmit it to the ground using an omnidirectional X-band antenna encircling the SubTEC. Data that SpaceCube cannot transmit will be processed and stored onboard at a rate of about one gigabit per second — another capability scientists said they needed to carry out their research.

The demonstration is expected to elevate the system’s technology-readiness level to eight, meaning it is operational, said technologist Wayne Powell. Its transition should go smoothly because X-band ground stations already exist at most ranges.

A SMART Way to Fly

The second payload is the Small Rocket/Spacecraft Technology (SMART) platform, created by Goddard technologist Jaime Esper and the Defense Department’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, which helped fund the platform’s development. The platform promises to provide faster, less expensive access to space because of its modular, reconfigurable design that users can adapt to a variety of missions, Esper said.

Comparable in size to an old-fashioned hatbox, the SMART microsatellite can be integrated and readied for launch in as few as seven days for a cost of less than $1 million, Esper said. “We’ve developed a creative way to reduce mission life-cycle times, with the resulting savings in cost. This enables a new class of researchers who can’t afford the high costs of getting into space.”

Wallops engineer Alex Coleman works on the Small Rocket/Spacecraft Technology (SMART) platform, one of two platforms flying on SubTEC-4 early next year. The microsatellite can be integrated and readied for launch in as few as seven days for a cost of less than $1 million.


Although Esper is debuting SMART on a suborbital flight, he said his platform is intended for orbital missions, particularly as a freeflyer for planetary missions. To demonstrate that capability, Esper has equipped SMART with three digital video cameras and other equipment serviced by SpaceCube. The microprocessor will process data-heavy video to test high-speed interfaces and monitor the deployment of SubTEC’s recovery parachute.

Esper also installed another emerging new technology — an electrohydrodynamic-based thermal control unit developed by Goddard thermal engineer Jeff Didion. “I recognized early that if you want to develop a new type of freeflyer that can travel in different orbits, you have to control the thermal environment,” Esper said.

Didion’s technology uses electric fields to pump coolant through tiny ducts inside a thermal cold plate. The advantage is that the system requires no moving parts, just electrodes to apply the voltage to move the coolant. Didion now is attempting to further reduce the size of his technology and is investigating ways to take it to the chip level where the ducts would be no larger than 100 microns, or ten-thousands the width of a human hair.

Although Esper’s primary objective is demonstrating SMART as a platform for scientific use, he and the Defense Department also want to showcase its capabilities as a platform for testing a space-based range tracking and safety system called the Autonomous Flight Safety System.

 

Technologies

The Office of the Chief Technologist is involved in a variety of projects, missions, and technologies.