NASA’s Groundbreaking Experiment: Pioneering Rad-Tolerant Computing for Space Exploration

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Computers onboard are essential for space exploration, supporting nearly every spacecraft operation including propulsion and navigation systems, life support technology, scientific data collection and analysis, communication, and reentry.

However, space computers are vulnerable to ionizing radiation from solar and cosmic sources. A single high-energy particle can initiate a “single event effect,” resulting in minor data inaccuracies that can escalate into widespread failures, system shutdowns, and irreversible harm. NASA has been actively pursuing economical strategies to lessen radiation impacts on computers to safeguard mission integrity and achievement, as reported by Beth Ridgeway for NASA.  Read the complete original article.

The view from Military & Aerospace Electronics:

10 January 2025 – Spacecomputers confront ionizing radiation that can induce data errors, system failures, or irreversible harm. In response, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is evaluating Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) technology, created by Montana State University, as a part of its CLPS project. RadPC, scheduled to be deployed on Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander, is engineered to recover from faults caused by radiation utilizing redundant processors on standard field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These logic units can be repaired in real-time after encountering radiation, with proprietary methods detecting and rectifying issues in the background.

RadPC comes with three dosimeters to monitor fluctuating radiation levels, investigating the interactions between Earth’s magnetosphere and solar winds while traveling to the Moon and providing radiation measurements at Mare Crisium, the landing site of Blue Ghost. This data could improve safety for upcoming Artemis missions.

Related: Radiation-hardy electronic subsystems for space communications, computing, and power solutions offered by Aitech

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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics