The US Air Force through its AFWERX program recently awarded Space Micro Inc.. STTR (Technology transfer for small business) contract to improve the current Nanocom™ Software Defined Radio (SDR) for the new US space program for the little ones. The contract, “Modular software defined radio for sustainable SATCOM”Requires Space Micro to assess the future requirements of the Ministry of Defense (DoD) for advanced SATCOM.
Space Micro’s Nanocom is a miniaturized (1U), fast to the field, cost-effective, modular SDR. Designed from previous programs to perform in hostile and extreme environments, the Nanocom is programmable in orbit and is suitable for a variety of applications, including telemetry transceiver, tracking and control (TT&C), mission data transmitter and RF ) receiver with built-in signal processing.
Nanocom contains the latest generation Xilinx Zynq software on a chip (SoC), whose large availability of programmable logic resources supports complex, cognitive anti-jamming algorithms. The included Gigabit Ethernet interfaces support classified data and waveform loading. Nanocom’s modular design allows easy configuration to support different data rates, frequencies, bandwidth and interfaces.
The Space Micro family from Software defined radio stations includes two different models: Space Micro’s Zynq 7020 µSDR-C, based on UHF, S-Band, L-Band and low C-Band applications, while the more powerful Zynq 7045-based Nanocom is aimed at more -high frequency, higher data rate and more intensive RF applications.
Space Micro has already shipped several DRSDR-C SDRs for U.S. commercial and government programs, and currently has a contract to supply X- and Ka-Band Nanocom SDRs for additional U.S. government programs.
“We are pleased to enter into this expeditious contract with AFWERX and through our discovery process to assess the needs of SATCOM, which will support space programs and missions for various Defense Department agencies, including the US Space Force, Air Force, SDA, MDA, SPAWAR Fleet. , DARPA, Army SMDC, SOCOM, DIU, AFRL and NRL,” said David J. Strobel, CEO of Space Micro. “The Air Force can benefit from our past and present commercial and IR&D investments in our dual-use space radios. Space Micro also monitors new demand for US domestic space subsystem sources for some US government agencies and programs. ”
Space Micro Inc., based in San Diego, California, is an engineering provider of affordable, high-performance, radiation-hardened communications, electro-optics and digital systems for use in commercial, civil and military space applications worldwide. Space Micro’s solutions include telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) transmitters, mission data transmitters, star tracking devices, image processors, control and processing systems (C&DH) and laser communication systems.