On-board processing and control

Onboard computers are the brains of spacecraft. Airbus Crisa has developed onboard computers and spacecraft management units for numerous space exploration programmes, as well as onboard computers that are tailored for Earth observation satellites – based on LEON3 processors.

Together with these onboard computers, Airbus Crisa provides bootstrap and hardware-dependent software to facilitate the development of mission-application software.

Instrument controllers are one of Airbus Crisa’s traditional product lines, providing turn-key end-to-end solutions that include the full development of hardware, as well as software.

The instrument controllers serve as the interface between the spacecraft platform and its instruments, removing the user from payload complexities. By taking charge of acquiring and processing science data, the units from Airbus Crisa can handle a full range of interfaces.

Airbus Crisa’s instrument controllers cover a diverse range of duties, including mechanism control, thermal control, and the management of scatterometers and radars. The company’s expertise is applied to the most demanding instruments in Earth observation, space science and exploration.

Front-end electronics are a key element of the detection chain for Earth observation spacecraft and instruments on astronomical observatories.

For more than 20 years, Airbus Crisa has provided state-of-the-art, front-end electronic products that respond to the most demanding performance requirements while offering cost- effective solutions that are tailored to customers’ needs.

With products adapted to the main detector technologies (CCD, CMOS and photodetectors) and breakthroughs such as Europe’s first 16-bit analog-to-digital FEE for spaceflight (on the Gaia spacecraft’s Proximity Electronics Modules), Airbus Crisa has earned its position as the European’s leading company in this sector.

Airbus Crisa has pioneered active antenna technologies for more than a decade.

The company’s high performance – and space proven – advanced digital antenna control electronics provide beam configuration, beam-hopping, synchronization, automatic failure detection and isolation.

Airbus Crisa’s capabilities have been demonstrated with the multibeam active antennas on Eutelsat’s Quantum commercial telecom relay platform, as well as the large active antennas that  incorporate in-orbit reconfiguration capabilities on the Spainsat governmental communications satellite.

Geo-location functionalities performed directly at RF frequencies require on-board high speed signal processing employing state-of-the art front-end conversion technology.

The main functions of Airbus Crisa’s Remote Interface Units and Remote Terminal Units (RIUs/RTUs) are the electrical management of satellite propulsion and AOCS (attitude and orbit control systems), along with the generation of housekeeping data.

These units have demonstrated outstanding in-flight reliability and excellent operational lifetimes, backed by Airbus Crisa’s capability to produce them at rates that meet customers’ satellite production schedules. Among the spacecraft to benefit from the company’s RIUs and RTUs are Airbus-built Earth observation satellites and European Space Agency science missions.

Airbus Crisa’s AS250 Remote Interface Units have accumulated combined in-orbit operations totalling more than 55 years without reported failures.