US Air Force - SDR's for Space

The US Air Force has award a contract to Space Micro Inc. to develop a Software Defined Radio that can operate in the high radiation environment of space. Radio Amateurs have been developing satellite SDR's for over 5 years.

Radio Amateurs started developing Software Defined linear satellite transponders in 2005. The first, a UHF-VHF transponder, was demonstrated by Howard G6LVB at the AMSAT-UK Colloquium in July 2005.

Howard subsequently showed a UHF-SHF version at the 2006 Colloquium and it is planned to use the STELLA Software Defined transponder on the P3E satellite.

The new Amateur Radio satellite ARISSAT-1 will be flying a software defined radio named Odyssey.

2006 - UHF-SHF Software Defined Cross Band Linear Transponder
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2006/
crossband_linear_transponder.htm

Odyssey - ARISSAT-1 Software Defined Radio
http://suitsat2.org/index.php?option=com_content
&view=category&layout=blog&id=21&Itemid=10

P3E Satellite Mission
http://www.p3e-satellite.org/en_EN/mission.html

Space Micro Inc Press Release
http://www.spacemicro.com/news/pr/2010/2010_02_15_
AF_selects_space_micro_for_uSDR_contract.html

Air Force Selects Space Micro to Develop Software Defined Radio for Space

SAN DIEGO, CA – February 15, 2010 – Space Micro Inc, an innovator of radiation hardened microelectronics for space applications, announced today that it has been awarded a $100,000 by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. The contract is to develop space communications hardware that is compatible with a wide variety of existing communication systems and is not susceptible to the damaging effects of radiation in space.

This reconfigurable hardware, called the Micro Software Defined Radio (µSDR™) will be ideally suited for several Air Force satellites to support the various ground forces and aircraft around the world.

Traditional software defined radios have major problems in radiation environments, such as those that exist in space. The µSDR™ will be scalable, reconfigurable, and radiation hardened against the harsh space environment, making it suitable for long term satellite use.

Dr. Bert Vermeire, CTO at Space Micro, said “this is a big step, both for Space Micro and for the space industry. There is a definite need for a radiation hardened software defined radio for space, and we have the technology and experience to create one.”

The µSDR™ will incorporate will incorporate Space Micro’s proven radiation mitigation techniques along with innovative new solutions that will drastically improve the reliability and functionality of software defined radios in space.