Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024 - 23

SpaceVPX
SpaceVPX and the use of Ethernet and
PCIe in space applications has grown. The
SpaceVPX Working Group is reviewing a
2022 content proposal for the inclusion of
high-rate Ethernet. "
The NESC report also highlights NASA
and government/industry adoption of
SpaceVPX, while outlining how it could
be used in a variety of space missions. The
first spaceflight application of a SpaceVPX
module occurred on the Earth Surface
Mineral Dust Source Investigation
(EMIT), which is an Earth Ventures-Instrument
(EVI)-4 mission to map the
mineral composition of arid dust source
regions of Earth via imaging spectroscopy
in the visible and short-wave infrared.
EMIT was developed at JPL and launched
in 2022, and installed on the underside of
the International Space Station. EMIT
was enabled by a 3U SpaceVPX solid state
drive module, and integrated into a
non-SpaceVPX avionics architecture.
Wesley Powell, NASA STMD Principal
Technologist for Advanced Avionics, was
one of the lead authors of the interoperability
assessment. In an August 2023
interview, Powell told Aerospace & Defense
Technology (A&DT) that the key feature of
SpaceVPX that benefits space computing
applications is the support for fault tolerance.
The standard ensures that the
power, control signals and clock functions
are distributed radially to each of
the modules within a chassis, according
to Powell. This can prevent an anomaly
on one module from taking down the
entire chassis, he said.
" SpaceVPX is not envisioned to be a
NASA-centric standard. We rely on
commercial industry partners to accomplish
many of our most ambitious missions.
We want to foster a SpaceVPX
ecosystem where any integrator - be it
NASA, industry or another organization
- can take best of breed modules for
their particular application from a variety
of vendors and have them work
together. That's the goal we're trying to
achieve, " Powell further explained. " We
want system integrators and spacecraft
avionics developers to be able to utilize
boards from a variety of vendors with a
variety of functions and have them
work together. "
One of the challenges with space missions
according to Powell is that sensor
Aerospace & Defense Technology, June 2024
data bandwidth often exceeds the available
downlink bandwidth for a spacecraft
over the course of its mission. When this
is the case, either data compression or
some other means of onboard data reduction
is needed. Typically, the onboard
processing that is needed for this data
reduction requires high-bandwidth interaction
between different modules, for
example an I/O board, a data storage
board, and a single board computer.
These are the types of applications that
SpaceVPX could enable, he said.
" Additionally, increasingly ambitious
missions to the outer reaches of our solar
system are driving the need for increased
onboard autonomy. SpaceVPX can
enable the high-performance onboard
computing systems needed to implement
this autonomy, " Powell said.
NASA's Interoperability Assessment
further outlines specific use case applications
for spacecraft that could leverage
SpaceVPX. These include crewed
mission avionics, a robotic landing
rover, and the use of avionics in a communications
relay spacecraft, spectroscopy,
an advanced earth observing
hyperspectral instrument and a high
bandwidth synthetic aperture radar.
The Future of SpaceVPX
In November 2023, Powell gave the presentation,
" NASA's Future Avionics
Use Case
Crewed Mission Avionics (*)
Crewed Mission Robotics and
Surface Vehicle (*)
SmallSat
On-orbit Servicing, Assembly
and Manufacturing (OSAM)
Science Rover
Precision Landing Processor
High Data Rate Missions (3)
Low/Medium Data Rate
Mission
Communication Relay
Spacecraft
HPSC A-Team Use Case
Brief Description
Implementation of Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) and Time
Triggered Ethernet (TTE) switch
Implementation of 'Robonaut type' avionics and lunar
rover avionics
Combined C&DH and instrument processing in single chassis for
an Evolved Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)-class mission
Implementation of avionics for onboard servicing, assembly,
and manufacturing robotics
Robotics science rover avionics
Implementation of the SPLICE DLC
High bandwidth Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
Spectroscopy (based on EMIT mission concept)
Advanced Earth observing hyperpectral instrument
Generic telescope mission concept with moderate data rates
(less than 0.5 Gbps)
Orbital optical communication relay payload based on Laser
Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD)
A hybrid of autonomous planetary mission use cases derived from
a JPL HPSC A-Team study
This table from NESC Interoperability Assessment features the individual use cases that were assessed.
(Image: NESC)
mobilityengineeringtech.com
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Vision, " at the 2023 Radiation Hardened
Electronics Technology (RHET) Conference.
That presentation provided updates
on the work still being done to increase
the interoperability between SpaceVPX
modules enabled by the standard for the
space avionics community. In the presentation,
Powell notes that NASA and the
broader industry and other government
agencies are following through on a key
recommendation from the Interoperability
Assessment that advises NESC to
engage with industry and the SOSA Consortium
on revision to VITA-78 and
" refine the module definition and
interoperability and daughtercard use. "
" Consistent with this recommendation,
a follow-on NESC activity has been
initiated to collaborate with industry
and other agencies on the development
of an interoperable variant of SpaceVPX
(currently specified in the VITA-78 standard)
within the Sensor Open System
Architecture (SOSA) standards organization, "
Powell notes in the presentation.
Over the last year, more embedded computing
module designers and vendors have
been introducing new SpaceVPX-aligned
products. In September 2023 for example,
Mercury Systems, Inc., published a press
release introducing their first " space-qualified
FPGA processing board to use AMD's
Xilinx Versal® AI core. The SCFE6933 is a
radiation-tolerant, 6U SpaceVPX board
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Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024

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