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CAMBR Chips To Go To Pluto 12 November, 2004 Post Falls, Idaho - A CAMBR chip has been selected to perform a mission critical function on-board the New Horizons spacecraft currently being prepared for a 2006 launch and subsequent journey to the last "planet" in our solar system. New Horizons is expected to arrive at Pluto in 2015. (see http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto_wait_030227.html) In addition to Pluto, New Horizons will explore Charon and other Kuiper Belt Objects, or KBOs. During recent years, controversy has swirled around the question of whether Pluto is really a planet at all, or just a rock in space. Most astronomers agree that if Pluto had not been discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, but, instead was discovered today, it would NOT be classified as the ninth plant. Rather it would simply be classified as a large KBO; a group of rocky, icy objects that resemble both asteroids and comets and whose existence was first theorized by Gerard Kuiper more than fifty years ago. Other KBOs have been confirmed during the past decade in the vast space beyond Neptune and extending at least 20% of the way to our nearest galactic neighbor, alpha Centauri, some 4.4 light-years away. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) who is charged with classifying objects in space currently has no formal definition of a plant. But under any scientific definition that would confirm planet status on Pluto, as was conferred at discovery, Pluto's "moon" Charon, and at least two other known KBOs, Quaoar and Varuna, should also qualify as planets, as would the asteroid Ceres. It is widely believed that given such an inclusive definition that the ultimate planet count in our solar system would eventually reach beyond two dozen. While such broad definition of a planet remains controversial and may never be adopted by the IAU, certainly given such a scenario the New Horizons spacecraft with its CAMBR chip could become a major participant in new planetary discoveries. As with other deep space missions, New Horizon's path to Pluto will not be a direct one. During the mission's second year the spacecraft will fly close to Jupiter, investigate some of the Jovian moons, steal a little orbital energy and "slingshot" on toward Pluto. The CAMBR designed chip is a Radiation Hardened By Design (RHBD) Error Detection & Correction (EDAC) Coder/Decoder (Codec) that was manufactured under contract at AMI Semiconductor in Pocatello and qualified, tested, and delivered to APL by ICs LLC of Post Falls. The EDAC functions at the heart of the on-board memory solid state recorder to provide data fault protection against the effects of space radiation and other environmental "noise." Similar CAMBR chips are found on-board the Hubble Space Telescope, Landsat7, TERRA, EO-1, TIMED, as well as the ill-fated Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft which was lost due to a rocket malfunction during orbital transfer insertion in August 2002. Official planet or not, Pluto remains a favorite of the public, particularly with children. It sparks our collective imagination. Yet it is the only planet that has not yet been visited by a spacecraft from earth. That is going to change in 2015 and the University of Idaho Center for Advanced Microelectronic & Biomolecular Research will be on-board. Chips from Pocatello to Post Falls to Pluto, via Jupiter. |
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