Compact Data Acquisition Systems (DAQ)

Background : Many current and past space missions have hosted large experimental breadboards and data acquisition systems (DAQs) within their payload subsystems. Accurate, real-time DAQs are important for NASA missions because they communicate important information between spacecraft sensors and scientists on Earth. These DAQs can be hosted on field programmable gate array (FPGA) development boards.

Objective:

  • Develop a compact DAQ real-time processing systems and integrate them with optical components such as interferometers.
  • Program FPGA boards to efficiently extract, filter out interfering signals from space, and optimize raw data from space-based laser interferometry experiments and obtain important signal characteristics such as phase shift, which can represent satellite separation distance, as an example.
  • Further, we plan to program FPGA boards to implement oscilloscopes and phase meters; control and drive optical laser sources in parallel.
  • Emulate GRACE-FO’s DAQs within laboratory for future space missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). This will ultimately optimize payload for future GRACE-FO-like missions.

Languages : We use programming languages such as Vivado, VHDL, Verilog, C, Python etc.