Patent — available for licensing
Real-Time Computing Architecture for Navigation Systems
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed and successfully flight tested a high-performance computing platform, known as the Descent and Landing Computer (DLC), to suit the demands of safe, autonomous, extraterrestrial spacecraft landings for robotic and human exploration missions. Unique to this platform is a datapath architecture that unencumbers microprocessors by isolating them from input and output interruptions, thus staving off latency and maximizing computational speed for the flight software. To safely land, the DLC must process landing-specific sensor data in real-time and relay this information to the primary flight computer for the spacecraft to avoid environmental hazards like craters and boulders. The datapath architecture presented allows for the DLC’s high-speed computational processing to provide this capability. This technology will be critical for safe access to other surface regions of the solar system in which spacecraft missions could not succeed with current landing capabilities. This datapath architecture technology is at a technology readiness level (TRL) 6 (system/subsystem prototype demonstration in a relevant environment) and is now available for your company to license. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale.