X2000 power system electronics development [Europa Orbiter mission]

The Europa Orbiter mission, currently baselined for launch in 2008, is intended to follow up on tantalizing results from the Galileo spacecraft, data from which suggests that there may be a global ocean underneath the Jovian satellite Europa's water ice crust. Europa orbit is propulsively one of the most difficult destinations to reach in the Solar System, making mass a major driver of mission cost. The combination of high radiation and the need for low-mass and -power electronics led to the X2000 avionics development activity, which is now at the core of the Europa Orbiter project. At the heart of the X2000 development are rad-hard, high performance application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which may be utilized either on the avionics "slices" for which they are being designed, or separately if that is beneficial to a user. The Europa mission provides a challenge in terms of extreme environmental requirements. The key driving requirements are the one mega-rad total ionizing dose and the fourteen-year life. The X2000 power system electronics (PSE) must reduce its power, mass and volume envelope by incorporating new technology developed by industry partners.