Space Micro Inc
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder | David J. Strobel |
| Headquarters | , USA |
Key people | David J. Strobel, David Czajkowski |
Number of employees | 107 |
| Divisions | Space Electronics, Advanced Materials, Microwave and RF |
| Website | www.spacemicro.com |
Space Micro Inc is an American company focused on technology advancement for high-reliability satellite subsystems. Space Micro's primary focus is on designing and building radiation hardened single board computers for satellites, including FPGA and PowerPC-based computers. Beyond single board computers, Space Micro develops other radiation hardened electronics for space applications, such as flash memory, divert attitude control systems (DACS), radio transponders, and radiation hardened software defined radios.
History
Space Micro acquired AeroAstro from Comtech.[citation needed]
Facility
Space Micro is a fast growth, high technology space products business founded in 2002 in San Diego, CA. The vision of Space Micro is to leverage commercial technologies, by minimal modification, to meet military and space requirements and effectively transfer into the product marketplace, with a special focus on space microelectronics, computing, and communications technology. Only selected capital-intensive manufacturing is outsourced to an established network of qualified assembly companies and semiconductor foundries.
Space Micro has both office and development laboratory space. Their research and development laboratory and production facility are in a modern 43,000 sq. ft. office/lab building where design, fabrication, test, qualification, and acceptance are completed. This facility includes a space electronics lab, an RF and SDR lab, an optical/lasercom, and several manufacturing clean rooms.
Business Organization
Space Micro is organized under four business sections.
- RF and Microwave
- Digital Systems
- This section houses all Digital Computing Products, peripherals and custom imaging products, including the Proton 100k, 200k, 300k, and 400k series Single-board computers, the ProtonX-Box Avionics Suite, the IPC-5000 Digital image processing Computer, and the HPIU hosted payload interface unit.
- Attitude Determination systems
- This section houses all Digital Star Trackers and Sun Sensors which are optimized for space.
- Advanced Materials
- This section houses all Advanced Materials.
Accomplishments
- First computer and image-processing subsystem in space (2006) was within 4 years of their founding in 2002.
- First advanced Software Defined Radios (SDRs) were developed for, and flown on, NASA IRIS, LADEE, and TESS.
- Delivered four spacecraft (3U CubeSats) with RF payloads for multiple DoD customers.
- Key supplier to many lunar missions ranging from NASA LADEE, Google Lunar X Prize (Beresheet), and NASA Artemis programs.
- World's highest data rate Laser Communications Terminal in orbit.
Products
Electro-Optics
Space Micro designs and manufactures a complete line of Electro-Optics subsystems including radiation-hardened, space-qualified cameras, built to withstand the harshest environments while delivering high-performance and long-term reliability. In fact, Space Micro space cameras have been selected for several upcoming Artemis lunar programs. Electro-Optics line also includes Star Trackers and Sun Sensors which utilize flight-tested components and proven radiation mitigation techniques. These products are designed to support precise spacecraft attitude determination and can be customized for specific orbit and mission life.
Communication Systems
Space Micro engineers cutting-edge, high-performance Communications Systems, including revolutionary Laser Communication Terminal, featuring data rates up to 100 Gbit/s. Space Micro offers a full suite of highly reliable Radio Frequency (RF) products, such as the SGLS, STDN and USB Transponders, X-, Ku-, and Ka-Band Mission Data Transmitters, RF Beacons and Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA).
Digital Systems
A strong reputation for reliability and high performance in space flight backs to full suite of Digital Systems which includes Single Board Computers and CubeSat Space Processors, as well as the modular and configurable ProtonX-Box Avionics platform and versatile Digital Slices. Image Processing Systems are in-flight configurable and engineered to process high-speed optical or sensor data, then correct, compress, packetize, store and make data available to downlink.
