Wind River

During the Apollo program era the government drove technology development for space, but now the commercial world does. Space entrepreneurs and traditional aerospace OEMs give people the access to information and services they need. From advanced telecommunications capabilities, including television, internet, telephone and secure communications to high resolution imaging an entire commercial space economy is built in conjunction with governments across the world. What tech will drive future space development and how will this new economy adapt and respond?

Rapid fielding and prototyping are essential to meet the emerging needs of the space applications market, especially when it comes to launching SmallSats. These capabilities are often enabled by effective Digital Twinning and Agile solutions that fuel modern simulation and training efforts from the design engineers and maintainers to spacecraft pilots. This episode covers how the paradigm shift caused by SmallSats has designers turning to agile processes to aid satellite development.

Open standards and open architectures are enabling greater performance and reduced life cycle costs for hardware and software systems in ground, air, and space applications. Embedded open standards – enabled by open architectures – carry a heritage in space, and their footprint is only growing. Open architectures also are enabling reuse of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software components in military terrestrial applications such as the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA). Join us to learn how open architectures, open standards, and reuse initiatives can be applied to space electronics systems.

The procurement term – (COTS) – has often been considered taboo among space electronics designers, as the commercial part of the phrase connotes low quality and/or low reliability. Yet many COTS solutions are not low-quality at all, and in demand for critical space applications. This demand is forcing traditional high-reliability (high-rel) designers to meet the cost constraints while remaining radiation-tolerant. Space COTS has been discussed and debated for the last 15 years and it’s finally getting to the point where the customer base is becoming more comfortable with using COTS. However, the challenge for COTS designers is mitigating radiation effects while on a limited budget. You can’t compromise on mission-safety requirements. Join us and learn about enabling COTS use in space.

Small satellites have changed the business model for space technology for everyone from the satellite producers to the designers of the radiation-hardened integrated circuits (ICs) that fuel their sophisticated payload. They’ve shifted the paradigm in terms of costs and time-to-market because they are less expensive to produce and launch, and if one goes down it can easily be replaced by another. The number of annual nano- or microsatellite launches has grown at an average of 40% per year since 2011, with 10% growth projected annually through 2023. What does it take to be successful in this market? From time-to-market pressure to the push for more commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology in military and commercial space applications, this episode covers the most important challenges and opportunities.

The first U.S. weather satellite weighed 270 pounds. Its size made most people associate the word “satellite” with either a moon, a sputnik, or a modern rig with rocket motors, solar panels, and antennae. Sixty years later, satellites are more common. They provide high-speed Internet, support global communications and GPS capabilities, and power our smartphones. Modern satellites are more powerful and flexible, do more, cost less, and get to orbit faster. They provide better accuracy, and improved anti-jamming capabilities, and, more recently, they even connect to the wider network of satellites orbiting Earth. Investments in satellite and space technology are growing not only in commercial markets, but in military and civil ones as well. Join us and hear about the cutting-edge technology enabling this revolution.

Support the show