Radiation-resistant FPGAs used throughout all phases of the Mars exploration

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24 March 2004 News Products & Solutions

In a sequel to the 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission, Actel radiation-tolerant and radiation-hardened field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have returned to Mars, playing critical roles throughout the missions, both American and European. From Delta launch vehicles to orbiting, landing and actively roving the surface of the planet, Actel has provided hundreds of FPGAs to enable implementation of various mission-critical digital logic functions, including power management, attitude and orbit control, command and data handling, and instrumentation and telemetry.

The space-optimised FPGAs were chosen because of the inherent benefits of the company's nonvolatile products - proven reliability at extreme temperatures and live at power-up functionality all on a single chip, which reduces component count, thereby minimising power consumption and saving board space and weight.

"Since 1990, Actel's space FPGAs have been onboard more than 100 launches and accepted for flight-unit applications on more than 300 satellites. When the Mars Pathfinder rover landed on Mars in 1997, it was Actel devices that helped to send back thousands of amazing photographs - a clear measure of the success of that mission," explained Barry Marsh, vice president, product marketing, Actel. "Today, Actel's devices continue to be ubiquitous in the exploration of space with hundreds of devices utilised for multiple Mars missions."

The Actel radiation-tolerant and radiation-hardened devices provided critical functions on the Delta launch vehicles, which propelled the Spirit and Opportunity spacecrafts toward Mars. During the six-month flight from Earth to Mars, Actel's devices were employed on central system computers, performing navigation activities, including star tracking and sun sensing. On each of the Mars Explorer rovers, Actel's space FPGAs are the 'heart and soul' of the 10 cameras, which capture images of the planet's surface. The devices also enable key radio communications, which relay those images back to the orbiters.

Aboard the orbiters, the devices enable the relay stations, which transmit images and vital control information between Mars and Earth. Specifically, on the Mars Express orbiter, Actel's offerings are also being leveraged for many mission-critical functions, including the solid state recorders, which alone use more than 20 Actel FPGAs.

Over the last decade, Actel FPGAs have been onboard more than 100 launches and flown on over 300 satellites, including Atlas II, Echostar, SBIRS-High, International Space Station, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Explorer Rovers 1 and 2, Mars Express Orbiter, Spirit and Opportunity Rovers, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Radiation-resistant FPGAs used throughout all phases of the Mars exploration

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