NASA upgrades ground terminals with VadaTech MicroTCA architecture

May 5, 2014–NASA is upgrading its ground terminals to modernize the communications infrastructure and provide new capabilities for its customers. The architecture chosen for the majority of its system is MicroTCA (μTCA) for its high performance, system management and failover capabilities, and COTS module diversity. The ground terminals are used in conjunction with several satellites supporting over 20 spacecraft, including the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, and Terra.
 
VadaTech’s MicroTCA system has been selected for the NASA project, including a 5U 12-slot chassis, a dual 10-Gigabit Ethernet FMC interface module, and the MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH). NASA plans to use μTCA components in its Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment Project, also known as SGSS, for the majority of the DSP element, including the analog-to-digital converters, modems, beamformers and processors. The μTCA architecture is also employed for USG local interface functions. The use of μTCA open-standard technologies provides a true COTS architecture, preventing sole vendor lock-in and saves money due to the low unit costs for the chassis, power supplies and processing cards. The upgraded ground terminal will accomplish more functionality in 1½ equipment racks versus the 24 needed in the current system.
 
VadaTech provides innovative embedded computing solutions from board-level products, chassis-level platforms, to configurable application-ready systems. Besides MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA solutions, VadaTech also offers specialized product solutions for VPX/VME, CompactPCI, and other architectures. A member of PICMG and VITA, VadaTech is headquartered in Henderson, NV with offices in Europe and Asia Pacific.