Space requires new technologies. Much like the space race of the 1950s, engineers are feverishly working to gain a competitive advantage. Mark Lombardi sits down to explore rad hardening, thermal vacuum chambers, space mining, CubeSats, and battery technology.
Mark Lombardi – 25 years at HP/Agilent/Keysight. He worked for RT logic for a few years, where he got into space.
2:00 – Your odds of survival getting to space are better than getting to the top of Everest.
2:30 – Space mining from the Asteroid belt has the potential to create the worlds first trillionaire.
3:20 – We need to establish manufacturing in space. For example, what if you manufactured satellites on the moon instead of on earth?
4:00 – The main driver is price-per-pound
6:10 – The Space Force – it sounds a little silly at first but is very reasonable when you take a closer look.
7:45 – How do you test objects bound for space?
8:30 – Space is transitioning from government-only to commercial. Businesses are starting to explore how to add value to society and make a profit from space.
9:15 – Phased arrays, reusable rockets, LEO satellites are all changing space technology.
10:00 – Low earth orbit satellites have much lower delay. Geosynchronous satellites have a 250 ms propagation delay.
This has interesting implications for 5G – that 250 ms latency is too long for 5G requirements. So, LEO satellites are what will be used.
12:00 – Using LEO satellites will be deployed in force instead of as singles, as mentioned in the Weather Cubesat podcast.
13:45 – Ghana launched their own satellite, which is a huge step. They eventually won’t be dependent on others for their space access. And, they can do specialized things for reasonable prices.
15:00 – Announcements – we haven’t podcasted in a long time, sorry! We are switching to 1x per month
16:45 – Radiation hardening for electronics, sometimes called electronics hardening. Historically, you had to plan for a long life in a satellite. Now, you don’t have to.
17:30 – It’s also hard to get a rad hardened cutting-edge technology.
18:00 – LEO satellites get less radiation, so it’s less of a problem. And, since they are cheaper, you can build in an expected mortality rate.
19:00 – You can also rev hardware faster, allowing you to use newer technology. Think about imagers, the technology has moved a long way in seven years.
19:55 – Space is cold. Space is a vacuum. So, to test our gear you have to reproduce that on earth. To do that, we use special chambers.
20:50 – Thermal vacuum chambers (T vac) are used to test space objects. Automotive parts are actually very resilient to temperature changes and can be leveraged into space designs.
21:30 – What happens to electronics in space? The vacuum is a bigger challenge than the temperature changes.
23:30 – To get more bandwidth, we have to increase frequency. This leads to attenuation in the air and in cables. Some designers are switching to waveguides.
25:00 – With modular test equipment, you could potentially have test gear that can survive in space.
27:00 – What is the current and projected size of the space industry?
28:10 – What batteries are used in space? What factors into battery decisions? – Lithium ion batteries work well in space, and are used when we can charge them with solar energy.
28:40 – Deep space exploration uses all sorts of obscure battery technology.
29:10 – Electronic propulsion
30:05 – Over 150V, things get interesting. The breakdown voltage is different in space than it is on earth. So, designers have to be very careful.