Network Interface
SpaceWire-Based Network Interface Finds Broad Use Inside and Outside NASA
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Within NASA, the SpaceWire-based network interface is being used in innovative technology development at Glenn Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Langley Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center as well as at its home center in Maryland.
One project benefiting from Goddard’s technology is the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is scheduled to launch in 2013. The four-instrument ISIM is the heart of the JWST.
“Infusing Goddard’s SpaceWire-based network interface into the JWST mission enables scientific discovery by allowing our four science instruments to operate at very high data collection rates,” says ISIM manager Pamela Sullivan.
Using Goddard’s technology dramatically accelerated the development of the JWST instrument electronics, explained Sullivan. “We were able to implement the design in a single FPGA chip and deliver it to the instrument teams at the start of their preliminary design phase. [It] saved us more than six months in the development of the instrument electronics.”
Other NASA projects using technologies based upon Goddard’s network interface include the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the R-Series of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, which is also referred to as GOES-R.
Goddard’s SpaceWire-based network interface also is being used commercially. In addition to the fact that most major aerospace companies have accessed the technology either for government projects or through a 90-day evaluation license, Goddard’s Office of Technology Transfer is putting agreements in place for the technology to be used in commercial applications.
One such agreement, which was signed in 2005, involves the technology’s inventor helping a major aerospace company adapt Goddard’s network interface to support the company’s own space-flight missions. In addition to being reimbursed for this support, NASA will have access to the modifications.
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| The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one project benefiting from GSFC’s technology. The four-instrument ISIM is the heart of the JWST. Pictured is a full-scale model of the JWST. |
Developed in 1999 under the auspices of the European Space Agency, SpaceWire solved a long-standing problem: the lack of a standard high-speed communications protocol for space-flight electronics. Because of this issue, all electronic payloads (processing units, onboard computers) had to be custom-designed on a project-by-project basis, resulting in long development periods, high costs and elevated risks. “SpaceWire lets you create one design that you can go to every time, for every mission,” says Goddard’s Glenn Rakow, SpaceWire development lead.
Rakow is NASA’s expert on SpaceWire. “His innovative development of SpaceWire capabilities and expertise at NASA Goddard has established us as the internationally recognized expert in the development and delivery of products and features to support Earth and space science missions,” says Goddard’s Mark Voyton of the JWST team.
For more information about accessing Goddard’s SpaceWire-based technology, contact , contact Ted Mecum, (301) 286-2198, ted.mecum@nasa.gov.
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