NASA small satellites launch using hi-rel Cobham microprocessors
NewsJanuary 05, 2017
WASHINGTON. NASA has announced the successful launch of its Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), a constellation of eight low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) microsatellites, with high-reliability controllers and processors from Cobham aboard.
CYGNSS seeks to improve weather prediction by studying the interaction between ocean surface properties, moist atmospheric thermodynamics, radiation, and convective dynamics as it relates to tropical cyclones. The satellite array uses Cobham Gaisler's GR712RC LEON3 system-on-chip device as the main computer for each of the CYGNSS satellites, while its LEON3 processor IP core was included in the CYGNSS Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI) payload as part of Surrey Satellite Technology's Space GNSS Receiver-Remote Sensing Instrument (SGR-ReSI). Rad-hard memory and circuit-card assembly services from Cobham Semiconductor Solutions were also part of the CYGNSS mission.
The NASA team consists of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), University of Michigan, Surrey Satellite Technology, and Sierra Nevada Corporation.
