A space vehicle designer was looking for a data acquisition solution that could collect all of the data from the onboard computers. Given that the vehicle was designed for applications such as resupplying the international space station, it was necessary that the equipment important for the mission met stringent reliability requirements, including predictable operation in a low earth orbit (LEO) radiation environment.
Another consideration was the tight schedule they needed to keep, which was compounded by an additional requirement later in the program to consolidate an audio processing unit into the data acquisition system to save space and weight.
The space vehicle manufacturer also needed to operate within the scope of limited budgets while adhering to the overall Mission Safety Assurance requirements. Another consideration was the tight schedule they needed to keep. The solution was to use Space qualified COTS. The use of COTS allowed for a lower cost solution compared to using more traditional space-qualified electronics, which were believed to be in the region of three times more expensive.
The use of a flexible, modular system with an established library of modules also allowed for the rapid development of a suitable system with most of the desired functionality fulfilled by existing cards.
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