RFID-Enabled Wireless Instrumentation

About this technology

Overview

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a wireless instrumentation system whose sensor tags can operate for years in a low-power hibernation state with instantaneous over-the-air passive RFID wakeup using only a small coin cell battery. The sensor tags, which are embedded with a processor and memory bank for acquired data, are placed about the vehicle and stream data only when queried by a fixed-location RFID interrogator. Otherwise, the tags remain dormant to preserve battery life. In the hibernating configuration, the microcontroller is the only circuit drawing power in the wireless sensor tag, and it is operating in the lowest power mode possible. This architecture proves extremely useful on long-duration missions and for early sensor tag integration into vehicles during assembly when the sensors may remain dormant years before being operated. This wireless low-mass technology will be implemented aboard the Cygnus CRS-2 NG-18 spaceflight mission.