XIPS is a com-mercial electron bom-bardment thruster (also known as an electrostatic ion thruster) – a form ion propulsion – that is a product of Hughes Space and Communications Company, which, in 2000, became part of Boeing Satellite Systems.

XIPS (pronounced "zips") employs the heavy inert gas xenon as a propellant. It was first used operationally aboard the PAS-5 (PanAmSat-5) communications satellite in 1997 and has since been fitted to many other geosynchronous satellites for use primarily in station-keeping. In a XIPS, xenon atoms are injected into an ionization chamber and ionized by electron bombardment. The propellant is then electrostatically accelerated through a series of biased grids.  Ions, ejected by XIPS, travel in a stream at a speed of 30 km/s (62,900 mph), nearly 10 times that of a conventional chemical thruster. The high efficiency of the system leads to a reduction in propellant mass of up to 90% for a satellite designed for 12–15 years operation.

For example on a XIPS equipped Boeing 702 satellite, four 25-cm thrusters provide economical station keeping, needing only 5 kg of fuel per year. Boeing asserts that this is "a fraction of what bipropellant or arcjet systems consume". Boeing further asserts, that a XIPS can be used for final orbit insertion and has orders ( source: Wikipedia, Boeing_702 )  for spacecraft utilizing only ion thrusters. This conserves even more payload mass, as compared to using an on-board liquid apogee engine.

DA-Design Oy was founded in 1995, specialising in electronics and software engineering. Since then company has generated a wide competence in embedded systems related software, electronics, mechanic, RF and microwave engineering.

Space Business became a part of DA-Design in 2007 with the merging of DA-Design & Ylinen. DA-Design carries out projects as a subcontractor for major space companies and European Space Agency ESA. Typically these projects include system and equipment design, manufacturing and testing. DA-Design makes subsystems into satellites and performs technology development for the future satellites.

New facilities enable space quality equipment manufacturing for both electrical and mechanical parts. Assembly and testing is done in a purpose built clean room facility. Measurements are mainly carried out in DA-Design in-house facilities with a possibility to test in a nominal space environment, vacuum. The clean room area contains all needed measurement equipment and simulation of space vacuum and temperatures down to +4 ˚K.

Launchspace Training is providing specialised training to the international space community.

Since 1970, thousands of space industry professionals have been attending high-intensity professional development courses presented by leading experts in almost every aspect of space flight, launch vehicles and spacecraft. Most experienced space engineers and technologists are familiar with Launchspace’s reputation for quality course content and presentation. No one else can offer the level of quality, expert content and ustomization of these courses. Only Launchspace is dedicated to training space professionals!

SSBV is a technology driven organisation, active in the domains of (aero)Space, Remote Sensing & Monitoring, Defence & Security and the development of High-Tech Systems.

Based on in-house technology, engineering, assembly and test skills, SSBV is able to provide system, subsystem and unit level solutions.

Since its establishment as Satellite Services B.V. in 1985, SSBV has evolved into a group of companies operating world-wide.

The European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) provides decision-makers with an informed view on mid- to longterm issues relevant to Europe’s space activities. In this context, ESPI acts as an independent platform for developing positions and strategies.

ESPI was established following a decision by the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA). Based in Vienna, it is structured as an association under Austrian Law. It incorporates a number of member institutions drawn from European agencies, operators and companies.

Logica is a global IT and management consultancy company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom.

Logica is a management consultancy, outsourcing and IT services and solutions company. Its activities include supporting the missions of over 150 orbiting satellites.  

Space Micro Inc specializes in payload and communications equipment for satellites.

Space Micro is proposing technologies that enable Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) electronic devices to be deployed in space. Radiation in space is damaging to electronics. Space Micro has patents for mitigating radiation effects on state-of-art commercial electronics. Space Micro offers space-qualified radiation hardened microelectronics, from radiation hardened by design (RHBD) technologies to space rated single board computers (RH SBC) and radios. Space Micro offers a fast space radiation hardened line of Proton™ Series RH computers to include the Proton200k™ DSP-based, Proton300k™ FPGA and Proton400k-L™ Multi-Core PowerPC-based processors. In addition to satellite computers, Space Micro offers satellite communications equipments to include compact µSDR™ radiation hardened software defined radio, µSGLS™ Space-Ground Link System, µSTDN ™, µX-Band ™ and µKa-Band ™ transmitters, transponders and Solid State Power Amplifiers (RH SSPA). Other Space Micro products include ProtonX-Box™ Avionics Suite, IPC5000™ Image Processing System, SEMS™ Space Weather Sensor Suite and Divert Attitude Control System (RH DACS). Other Space Micro developed technologies include TTMR™ & Patented (Time Triple Modular Redundancy) and H-CORE™ & Patented “Watch Dog” circuitry for Single Events Functional Interrupt (SEFI) space radiation mitigation. Technologies currently under development include DDR2 SDRAM and Monolithic RH Flash memories for advanced space processors. Space Micro is an employee-owned company based in San Diego, Calif., USA.

In addition to radiationed hardened electronics, Space Micro also designs novel materials and non-destructive evaluation techniques in the Advanced Materials Division. 

Clients include NASA, Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). 

Radiation Hardened Computer Platform with Reconfigurable FGPAs

The Proton300k™ computer platform is a high performance radiation hardened processing solution that meets the challenges of the harsh space environment. Several advanced technologies are brought together in the Proton300k™ to provide industry leading performance, power, and radiation hardening. The Proton300k™ computer platform can accept several reconfigurable FPGAs to accommodate a wide variety of space applications.

Need

Commercial digital signal processors (DSPs) and FPGAs suffer from radiation effects in the space environment, particularly single event upsets (SEU) and single event functional interrupts (SEFI). Furthermore, traditional radiation hardened computer suppliers have struggled to deliver performance and user-programmability while maintaining radiation hardness. The Proton300K™ utilizes Space Micro’s patent-pending Time-Triple Modular Redundancy (TTMR™) and Hardened Core (H-Core™) technologies to solve the SEU and SEFI issues commonly encountered with DSPs and FPGAs.

Highlights

In addition to its radiation hardening, the Proton300k™ has a modular architecture, so that it can accommodate a number of FPGAs as well as various memory and communication bus options. Its low power requirements also make it ideal for a wide variety of space applications.  SEU mitigation is handled with the on-board DSP. This mitigation can be turned on or off. This allows the utilization of the full power of the FPGAs during non-critical aspects of the mission, while mitigating SEUs during critical phases.

Applicability

With the capability to accept several reconfigurable FPGAs, the Proton300k™ can be customized to accommodate the needs of a variety of satellite and launch systems. This includes processing of image and sensor data, advanced algorithms, or many other applications in LEO or GEO orbits.

STK is a free system modeling and mission analysis application and software development kit for space, defense and intelligence engineers and analysts. Use STK to model complex systems (aircraft, satellites, ground vehicles), along with their sensors and communications, in the context of the mission environment.

•High-fidelity spatial mechanics engine
•Software development kit for integration and deployment
•Detailed model and simulation creation
•Customizable report and graph styles

L-3 is a prime contractor in Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C³ISR) systems, aircraft modernization and maintenance, and government services. L-3 is also a leading provider of a broad range of electronic systems used on military and commercial platforms. Our customers include the U.S. Department of Defense and its prime contractors, U.S. Government intelligence agencies, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Justice, allied foreign governments, domestic and foreign commercial customers and select other U.S. federal, state and local government agencies.