Innoflight Middleware System (IMS)

Space missions can benefit greatly from the use of the latest COTS processing technology in order to allow spacecraft to perform more onboard computation using less power. This trend has accelerated in recent years due to the explosion of low-power commercial processing technology driven by mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Many of these advanced devices contain multiple processing cores, and some are full System-on-Chip (SoC) parts that include GPU processor arrays or FPGA fabric. However, while these COTS multi-core processors have tremendous capability, they are not designed to be tolerant to the radiation effects that are experienced in the space environment. One approach to increasing the reliability of COTS processors in space is to implement redundancy within the software framework. With this technique, the multiple cores in a processing device and even multiple independent computers can be operated in any combination of parallel processing (for enhanced performance) and redundantly (for enhanced reliability). For this proposed project, we plan to develop the Innoflight Middleware System (IMS) in order to provide this capability.

Central Processing Units and Payload Processing Units that utilize multi-core processors for all missions requiring moderate radiation tolerance to SEUs in environments ranging from Deep Space through MEO and HEO down to LEO.

DoD and commercial missions requiring a smaller, lighter, and lower power CPU or payload processor with improved tolerance to radiation effects.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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.