NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Gets "Spacewired" (Forwarded)

Rob Gutro
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. October 25, 2007
301-286-4044

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Gets "Spacewired"

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will use a new advanced technology network
interface called "SpaceWire" that enables the components on the telescope to
work more efficiently and more reliably with each other.

SpaceWire is a standard for high-speed communication links between satellite
components. Originally developed by the European Space Agency, SpaceWire has
been adopted and improved by a team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science
Instrument Module (ISIM) and Command and Data Handling (ICDH) engineering
team has developed a small and very low power microchip that sends and
receives SpaceWire signals at speeds of over 200 mega-bits per second.

The new higher bandwidth from SpaceWire enables the JWST ISIM to support the
mission's science instruments which employ 66 million detector pixels. This
is the largest number of pixels ever used on a space telescope, and it will
allow JWST to study more of the universe. Handling the large volume of data
from these detectors presented a unique challenge for the JWST ICDH team.
The development of this new network interface enables the JWST science
instruments to realize their full scientific discovery potential, and will
permit future NASA mission planners to consider use of more detectors with
an even larger number of pixels to see even more of the universe.

"Infusing the SpaceWire-based network interface into the JWST mission
enables scientific discovery by allowing the JWST science instruments to
operate at very high data collection rates," said Pam Sullivan, Manager of
the JWST ISIM.

SpaceWire is a standard for high-speed links and networks for use onboard a
spacecraft, easing the interconnection of sensors, mass-memories and
processing units. The SpaceWire standard provides many benefits. It helps
facilitate the construction of high-performance onboard data handling
systems, reduces system integration costs, increases compatibility between
data handling equipment and subsystems, and encourages re-use of data
handling equipment across several different missions.

To understand the benefit of SpaceWire, you can compare the speed of a
dial-up modem to a high-speed broadband Internet connection. SpaceWire
connects multiple spacecraft components on super-fast links to get a quicker
result.

Goddard's version of the SpaceWire technology has also dramatically
accelerated the development of the JWST instrument electronics. The JWST
ICDH team delivered the SpaceWire technology -- which is packaged in a
digital, low power (1.5W), high speed (66Mbps) Field-Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA) computer chip -- to JWST partners including prime contractor Northrop
Grumman, Lockheed, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Canadian Space
Agency.

As a result of this JWST technology development, other missions are
considering SpaceWire include the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R). SpaceWire is
also being used for technology development at other NASA centers including
the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio; JPL, Pasadena, Calif.;
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. and the Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, Ala.

The benefit to other missions from using SpaceWire is a lower cost for
development, a reduction of development time, better reliability, and an
increase in the amount of scientific work that can be achieved within a
limited budget.

Commercially, nearly every major aerospace company in the U.S. has been
provided with Goddard's technology either for projects with NASA or other
government labs or for evaluation via a 90-day license. Now Goddard's
technology is being distributed free via Software Usage Agreements.

The James Webb Space Telescope is a 21st century space observatory that will
peer back more than 13 billion years in time to understand the formation of
galaxies, stars and planets and the evolution of our own solar system. It is
expected to launch in 2013. The telescope is a joint project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...pacewired.html
]