Revision as of 17:24, 10 May 2019

Throughout the years, microprocessors have played a large role in spacecrafts. space-qualified microprocessors are designed to be exceptionally reliable and highly durable. Due to their unique nature, the same set of chips that have been tested and proven to work are used in many spacecrafts. Below is a list of microprocessors used in spacecraft.

1950s

1960s

Year	Picture	Spacecraft	Chipset
			System	Processor	Frequency	Memory	Weight
1962-1966		Gemini Spacecraft	Gemini Guidance Computer	discrete IC RTL	7.143 kHz	19.5 KB	58.98 lb
			The Gemini Spacecraft was part of Project Gemini, NASA's second human spaceflight program.
1961-1972		Apollo spacecraft	Apollo Guidance Computer	discrete IC RTL	2.048 MHz	4 KB (RAM) 73.73 KB (ROM)	70 lb
			The Apollo spacecraft was part of the Apollo program, NASA's third human spaceflight program.

1970s

Year	Picture	Spacecraft	Description
1971		Pioneer 10	The Pioneer 10, which was launched on March 3, 1972, became the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. The spacecraft's process were made of individual transistor-transistor logic chips. A common myth is that the Intel 4004 powered the Pioneer 10, however, this is incorrect.
1973		Pioneer 11	The Pioneer 11, was launched on April 6, 1973 in order to study the Asteroid belt. Just like it's twin probe, the Pioneer 10, its CPU was also a custom-designed TTL CPU.
		Skylab	The Skylab, which was launched on May 14, 1973, and operated until 1979, used an IBM System/4Pi model TC-1 (Tactical Computer), a miniaturized and hardened version of the IBM System/360 computers.
1975		Viking 1	The Viking 1, the first of two spacecrafts, was launched on August 20, 1975. The Viking 2, was launched a year later on September 9, 1975 The computer on-board the Viking Orbiter was the Viking Orbiter CCS, a custom 18-bit TTL computer designed by General Electric. The lander computers, the Guidance, Control and Sequencing Computer, used two Honeywell HDC 402 microprocessors. (A common myth is that the Viking used an RCA 1802, this is incorrect).
		Viking 2
1977		Voyager 1	The Voyager 1 and its sister craft Voyager 2 were launched on September 5 and August 20 of 1977 and are still operating to date (2014). On August 25, 2012, NASA announced that Voyager 1 entered interstellar space. Each craft carries three dual-redundant computer systems. The first one, the Voyager Command and Control Subsystem (CCS), was in charge of general spacecraft sequencing and general health functionality. The second one, the Voyager Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystems (AACS) used a slight variation of the CCS. The third computer was the Voyager's data computer, which was a custom 4-bit CMOS microprocessor.
		Voyager 2

1980s

Year	Picture	Spacecraft	Description
1981-2011		Space Shuttle	The Space Shuttles uses 5 identical (for redundancy) 32-bit IBM APA-101S microprocessors. The shuttle system was called the Data Processing System which was composed of Primary Avionics Software System (PASS), that ran in 4 of the computers and the Backup Flight System on the fifth.
1989		Galileo	The Galileo spacecraft uses the RCA 1802 CPU.

1990s

Year	Picture	Spacecraft	Description
1990		Hubble Space Telescope
1991		[[Wikipedia:Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite|UARS]. This spacecraft used the NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer (NSSC-1), although the various instruments probably had embedded microprocessors.]
		CGRO
1992		MSTI-1
		SAMPEX
		EUVE
		TOPEX/Poseidon
1993		PoSAT-1
1994		MSTI-2
		Clementine
1995		MSTI-3
1996		FAST
1997		Mars Global Surveyor
		Mars Sojourner Rover	80C85 CPU.
		Cassini–Huygens
1998		International Space Station
		SWAS
		TRACE
		Deep Space 1
1999		Terra
		WIRE
		UoSAT-12
		FUSE

2000s

Year	Picture	Spacecraft	Description
2000		Cluster II
		MightySat-2.1
2001		Genesis
2002		Aqua
		RHESSI
2003		Spirit Rover
		Opportunity rover
	200px	Spitzer Space Telescope
		ICESat
		Coriolis
2004		Rosetta
		Aura
		Swift
		Gravity Probe B
	200px	MESSENGER
2006	200px	New Horizons
		STEREO
2007		Dawn
		Phoenix

2010s

Year	Picture	Spacecraft	Description
2010		GSAT-4
		Solar Dynamics Observatory
2011		Curiosity rover	The Curiosity Rover uses a pair of identical on-board computers called Rover Computer Element (RCE), each with RAD750 CPU capable of 400 MIPS.
2012		Project Morpheus
2015		Triana