RadPC@scale - Suborbital Flight Demonstration of a Radiation Tolerant Computer System at-Scale

This full-scale Radiation-Tolerant Computer System (RadPC) is designed to dynamically recover when exposed to ionizing radiation. Based on commercial off-the-shelf field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), the RadPC has a redundant core architecture that replaces faulted processors in real time. Background memory scrubbing and error correction codes further ensure the computer withstands the effects of radiation. If successful, this technology will provide high reliability along with high performance, enabling real-time computing for space science and exploration missions.

Problem Statement 
Future space science and exploration will rely heavily on real-time computation. While off-the-shelf computers provide the needed performance and cost-point, they cannot operate in space due to the effects of ionizing radiation. A suborbital flight demonstration will test the operation of the full system in a space environment. Tests will include running flight software to stress the system computationally as well as expanding the memory protection technique to large arrays of storage.

Technology Maturation 
Prior subsystems have been demonstrated at TRL 6, but the at-scale version has not been tested in a space environment. A full system demonstration will achieve TRL 7.

This work is a continuation of previous flight testing under T0088. 



RadPC: A Novel Single-Event Upset Mitigation Strategy for Field Programmable Gate Array–Based Space Computing (April 2021)

Overview of the Upcoming RadPC-Lunar Mission (March 2021)

This technology is low cost and meets the commercial performance requirements will being reliable in space. In addition, the system is robust due to the ability of the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to dynamically recover from radiation induced faults. This would benefit future NASA missions and the commercial space industry.

Future Customers
• Computation needed for autonomy in space exploration
• Science missions requiring real-time data processing

This is a mature technology (TRL 7) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.