The University of Malta, in collaboration with the French Space Agency (Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES) - organised a 3-day tele-workshop on the Radiation Effects on Electronics and Spacecraft Computer Systems as part of the MCST-funded space engineering project – RESOLUTE.
The workshop was hosted by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta, during the first week of March and the event was divided into two parts.
The first part was mainly aimed at training Electronics professionals, ICT systems designers, electrical engineers and students who wished to gain an awareness of the intricacies of electronics design and validation for the harsh space environment.
The topics covered included:
● The Radiation Environment in space and radiation test principles, facilities and results
● Commercial off the shelf devices (COTS) in space: constraints, limitations and disruptive capability
● System Hardening for radiation and real applications
● FPGA and SoC: architecture, radiation testing and fault mitigation.
The second part of the workshop was specifically centred around the UM’s flagship picosatellite design, The UoMBSat-1, whereby all subsystems (including communications, power, propulsion, attitude determination and control and the on board computers) were analysed and discussed in considerable detail with a team of French Space engineering experts. Strengths and weaknesses were identified and recommendations were provided which the Maltese designers will now take into account.
The Maltese team of undergraduate and post graduate engineering designers were again commended by the French experts for their inventive and innovative approaches towards lowering the cost of gaining access to space. Opportunities for further collaboration with the French Space Agency were also discussed.
More information about Malta’s Picosatellite project spearheaded by the University of Malta may be found on the Astrea website.
Project RESOLUTE is financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the MCST-CNES Space Bilateral Fund.