Cibola Flight Experiment

Los Alamos National Laboratory is building the Cibola Flight Experiment (CFE), a reconfigurable processor payload intended for a Low Earth Orbit system. It will survey portions of the VHF and UHF radio spectra. The experiment uses networks of reprogrammable, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to process the received signals for ionospheric and lightning studies. The objective is to validate the on-orbit use of commercial, reconfigurable FPGA technology utilizing several different single-event upset mitigation schemes. It will also detect and measure impulsive events that occur in a complex background. Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd (SSTL) is building the small host satellite, CFESat, based upon SSTL’s disaster monitoring constellation (DMC) and Topsat mission satellite designs. The CFESat satellite will be launched by the Space Test Program in September 2006 on the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) using the EELV’s Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) that allows up to six small satellites to be launched as ‘piggyback’ passengers with larger spacecraft