The Configurable Fault Tolerant Processor (CFTP), developed by the Space Systems Academic Group at the Naval Postgraduate School, is an experimental payload onboard the United States Naval Academy's (USNA) MidSTAR-1 satellite. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS is a research university at the graduate-school level operated by the United States Navy. The United States Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, United States that educates and commissions officers of the United States MidSTAR-1 is an artificial Satellite produced by the United States Naval Academy Small Satellite Program (SSP Midstar-1 was launched into a 492km low earth orbit (LEO) on March 8, 2007, aboard an Atlas V expendable launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, along with FalconSat 3, STPSat 1, and CFESat as secondary payloads. A Low Earth Orbit (LEO is generally defined as an Orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2000 km The Atlas V Rocket is an Expendable launch vehicle formerly built by Lockheed Martin and now built by the Lockheed Martin- Boeing joint venture An expendable launch system is a Launch system that uses an expendable launch vehicle (ELV to carry a payload into Space. The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS is a detachment of the 45th Space Wing (45 SW Patrick AFB provides headquarters functions from the 45 SW a major airfield FalconSAT is the name of the United States Air Force Academy 's small Satellite engineering program CFESat, the Cibola Flight Experiment Satellite, examines radio spectra for ionospheric and lightning studies using Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs The primary payload was Orbital Express.
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CFTP Purpose
The Configurable Fault Tolerant Processor Project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for spacecraft computer processing by applying various fault tolerance techniques to the designs. FPGAs should not be confused with the Flip-chip pin grid array, a form of integrated circuit packaging CFTP provides a valuable testbed for on-orbit evaluation of various fault tolerant concepts.
The use of FPGAs provides added flexibility, allowing on-orbit upgrades and rapid development cycles. Using Commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology allows the engineer to produce more technologically advanced designs at a lower cost and in a shorter time than using more traditional space-grade components. Commercial off-the-shelf ( COTS) is a term for Software or Hardware, generally technology or computer products that are ready-made and available for sale
Space-based FPGA design also provides the Naval Postgraduate School students with unique challenges in developing for and configuring the system. Remotely accessing the platform over a limited downlink and uplink provides challenges not seen on ground based systems. [1]
CFTP Versions
CFTP-1
The CFTP-1 board utilizes Xilinx Virtex I parts for both the control and experiment FPGAs. Xilinx Inc ( is the world's largest developer and fabless manufacturer of a class of reconfigurable hardware chips known as Field-programmable gate arrays The complete CFTP payload, as delivered to MidSTAR-1, consists of the CFTP board itself (shown in the spacecraft image above), an ARM processor board that communicates with the control FPGA on the CFTP board through a PC/104 bus, and a power supply board. The ARM processor board communicates with the spacecraft's Command and Data Handler (C&DH) computer through a serial PPP link.
CFTP-1 underwent radiation testing at the UC Davis' cyclotron facility prior to integration with the MidSTAR satellite.
CFTP-2
The CFTP-2 system is currently an entirely ground based system. The CFTP-2 board itself is set up nearly identically to the CFTP-1 board, however it utilizes a Xilinx Virtex 2 part as the experiment FPGA, rather than the Xilinx Virtex I part on CFTP-1. Xilinx Inc ( is the world's largest developer and fabless manufacturer of a class of reconfigurable hardware chips known as Field-programmable gate arrays This system was tested in a proton beam using the University of California at Davis' cyclotron. The University of California Davis, commonly known as UC Davis, or just UCD, is a public coeducational university located in the city of Davis,
References
- ^ Challenges of Remote FPGA Configuration for Space Applications. Naval Postgraduate School (2005-03-05). Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a
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