EECE/EECS for Instrument Development at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Ground, Airborne, and Space Flight Applications

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system, and conducts major programs in space-based Planetary and Earth sciences and astronomy. Instruments are an integral part of the mission, and EECE / EECS disciplines are a critical part of instrument development. Earth observing satellites, Mars rovers, and planetary explorers have all had science instruments with major developments in analog/digital electronics, embedded systems, flight software, and on-board processing. Ground support electronics, science data processing, archiving, and instrument operations are also key to mission success. This talk highlights some of the recent developments in technology and science data acquisition and processing. The emphasis is on reconfigurable hardware and embedded software design for small satellites, atmospheric observation instruments, and autonomous image analysis for astrobiology.
Dmitriy Bekker received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2007. He is currently a staff engineer in the Instrument Flight and GSE Software group in the Instrument Electronics and Sensors Section at JPL. He is working on FPGA-based data acquisition and processing design for multiple prototype science instruments and technology development for small satellite applications. His areas of interests include FPGAs, embedded systems, digital signal processing, and system architecture.