Space Processors

Space processors are the CPUs, FPGAs, and other chips specially chosen or designed to run reliably in the harsh conditions of orbit.

Imagine picking a brain for your robot that has to work flawlessly while being constantly bombarded by radiation and running on a very limited power supply.

Common Types of Space Processors

Radiation-Hardened CPUs

These are traditional processors built with special techniques to survive radiation. Popular examples include the BAE Systems RAD750 (based on PowerPC) and Microchip’s SAMRH series (ARM-based). They are slower and more expensive than desktop CPUs, but they have a proven track record on many successful missions.

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)

FPGAs are reconfigurable chips that let engineers customize hardware functions even after launch. Radiation-tolerant versions from Microchip (such as the RT PolarFire) and AMD Xilinx are widely used because they offer high performance for specific tasks like signal processing or data filtering while maintaining reliability.

Emerging Options

Some newer missions carefully qualify commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors with heavy software mitigation. This approach provides more raw performance at lower cost, though it requires extra work to ensure reliability.

Key Trade-offs

Space processors usually deliver less raw speed than the CPU in your laptop or desktop. Instead, power efficiency, radiation tolerance, and long-term reliability matter far more. A processor that fails after six months is useless no matter how fast it is.

Designers must balance performance against power consumption, size, and the ability to handle faults gracefully.

Why Processor Choice Matters

The processor is often the single most important decision in a space computing design. It determines what software can run, how much data can be processed onboard, how much power is needed, and how autonomous the spacecraft can be.

Modern space missions are increasingly using a mix of CPUs for general control and FPGAs for high-speed parallel tasks. As technology improves, we are seeing more capable and efficient processors making their way into orbit.

Choosing the right space processor is what allows a small CubeSat to perform useful science or a deep-space probe to operate reliably for many years far from Earth.