RADARSAT Constellation Mission RCM
RADARSAT Constellation Mission (3 satellites). Credit: MDA.

MDA was recently awarded $2 million from the Canadian Space Agency to develop a next generation on-board computer.

In an email to SpaceQ a Canadian Space Agency spokesperson provided the following description of the technology MDA is developing.

MDA’s ESP750 High Performance Enhanced Space Processor Board (2012). Credit: MDA.
MDA’s ESP750 High Performance Enhanced Space Processor Board (2012). Credit: MDA.

“MDA proposes to develop a state of the art, flexible, on-board processing platform for next generation real-time applications. MDA has successfully developed and marketed seven generations of processing platforms (such as the ESP603 and ESP750) and is proposing to provide a leap in performance capability with the next generation of on-board computers for a broad set of applications.”

The award follows 8 others from the Space Technology Development Program that were announced earlier this year from the November 2020 procurement notice.

Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor & publisher. He is the founder of SpaceQ Media and Director of Digital Platforms for SpaceNews. Boucher has 25+ years working in various roles in the space industry and a total of 30 years as a technology entrepreneur including creating Canada's first internet directory and search engine.

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