Spacecraft Computers on the SeaStar Satellite

The SeaStar spacecraft requires a high performance computer system to handle its various requirements. It must process not only the high-rate data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) instrument, but also the spacecraft ground interface system and the attitude control system data. This paper will describe the spacecraft computer architecture and its hardware. With minimum peripheral changes, the same computer can be configured to perform the payload, or the ground interface, or the attitude control functions. Each flight computer consists of three computer slices and a power module. There are two main flight computers on the SeaStar satellite; the second unit is used as a back-up. To date, the satellite has not required the service of the back-up computer