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Working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the company, also known as Apogee Semiconductor, will develop a flexible, radiation-hardened switching power controller capable of being configured based on a mission’s power needs. This technology could be used for missions to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, and other destinations.
The goals of this task are to develop requirements and a conceptual architecture for a space rad-tolerant neuromorphic processor (RTNP). The neuromorphic processor will be capable of greatly accelerating machine inferencing and many artificial intelligence processing tasks that will improve both space-based science missions and human exploration missions. The baseline comparison will be to a standalone HPSC (High Performance Space Computer) as measured by operations per watt. RTNP is envisioned to operate both as an HPSC co-processor and as a stand-alone processor, e.g. for cubesats and for direct connection to sensors like cameras.
The task aligns with rad-tolerant space avionics and autonomy strategic vision and needs. The technology gaps are: A) Radiation and fault tolerance gaps between terrestrial neuromorphic processors and space-borne needs
B) Use case differences between terrestrial and space neuromophic processing. The task objective is to analyze the trade space of space neuromorphic processors at both the device level and the conceptual architecture level in order to formulate requirements for a SNP.
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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.
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