SpaceCube
Encyclopedia
SpaceCube is a family of high-performance reconfigurable systems designed for spaceflight applications requiring on-board processing. The SpaceCube was developed by engineers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
. The SpaceCube 1.0 system is based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs. The debut mission of the SpaceCube 1.0, Hubble Servicing Mission 4
, was the first time Xilinx's Virtex-4 FPGAs flew in space
.
SpaceCube team earned an honorable mention for the 2009 "IRAD Innovator of the Year" award.
Media
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...
. The SpaceCube 1.0 system is based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs. The debut mission of the SpaceCube 1.0, Hubble Servicing Mission 4
STS-125
STS-125, or HST-SM4 , was the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope .Launch occurred on 11 May 2009 at 2:01 pm EDT...
, was the first time Xilinx's Virtex-4 FPGAs flew in space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
.
Missions
- Hubble Servicing Mission 4STS-125STS-125, or HST-SM4 , was the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope .Launch occurred on 11 May 2009 at 2:01 pm EDT...
: The SpaceCube was the brains of the Relative Navigation Sensors autonomous docking experiment that was run in parallel with the astronautAstronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
controlled docking of the Hubble Space TelescopeHubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
.
- MISSE-7: The SpaceCube was attached to the outside of the ISSInternational Space StationThe International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
during an EVAExtra-vehicular activityExtra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
on Space ShuttleSpace ShuttleThe Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
Mission STS-129STS-129-Crew seat assignments:-Mission payload:-ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 and 2:The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is with a volume of 30 meters cubed...
. It provides an on-orbit test platform for demonstrating innovative radiation hardened by software techniques. It is mounted on the NRLUnited States Naval Research LaboratoryThe United States Naval Research Laboratory is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps and conducts a program of scientific research and development. NRL opened in 1923 at the instigation of Thomas Edison...
's MISSE7 experiment which is attach to an ExPRESS Logistics CarrierEXPRESS Logistics CarrierAn ExPRESS logistics carrier is an unpressurized attached payload platform for the International Space Station that provides mechanical mounting surfaces, electrical power, and command and data handling services for Orbital Replacement Units as well as science experiments on the ISS...
.
Family Overview
- SpaceCube 1.0: Based on Xilinx's Virtex-4 commercial FPGAs.
- SpaceCube 1.5: Intermediate version of SpaceCube 2.0. Based on Xilinx's Virtex-5 commercial FPGAs. Scheduled to fly on sounding rocketSounding rocketA sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...
flight in the fall of 2010.
- SpaceCube 2.0: Currently under development with over $1 million in funding. The SpaceCube 2.0 system is based around XilinxXilinxXilinx, Inc. is a supplier of programmable logic devices. It is known for inventing the field programmable gate array and as the first semiconductor company with a fabless manufacturing model....
's new radiation-hardened Virtex-5 FPGA.
Awards
NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterGoddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...
SpaceCube team earned an honorable mention for the 2009 "IRAD Innovator of the Year" award.
On Board Science Data Processing Achievements
- Synthetic Aperture Radar Synthetic aperture radarSynthetic-aperture radar is a form of radar whose defining characteristic is its use of relative motion between an antenna and its target region to provide distinctive long-term coherent-signal variations that are exploited to obtain finer spatial resolution than is possible with conventional...
(SAR) results:- 6 to 1 loss-less data volume reduction on SAR Nadir Altimetry dataset.
- 165x data volume reduction on SAR mapping dataset.
External links
- Goddard Space Flight Center technologies site
- SpaceCube on Facebook
- A pose and position measurement system for the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission
- Relative Navigation
- Summer 2008 Goddard Tech Trends
- MAPLD 2009 RNS SpaceCube
- MAPLD 2009 SpaceCube Activities
- RHBD Xilinx Virtex-5
- Heavy ion SEE test of Xilinx Virtex4 XC4VFX60 FPGA
- SpaceCube Virtex-4 FPGA qualification methodology
- Spring 2009 Goddard News Tech Transfer
- Xilinx XCell Journal Customer Innovation Issue
Media
- SpaceCube Photo Gallery on Flickr
- MISSE-7 SpaceCube development team
- SpaceCube in Atlantis Shuttle bay(The SpaceCube is mounted on the MISSE-7 ExPA on ELC-2 on the bottom right.)
- SpaceCube mounted to MISSE7's ExPA(The SpaceCube is the smaller box with several connectors on top)
- Naval Research Lab's MISSE-7 Press Release
