Alpha Data, based in Edinburgh and Denver, Colorado, has developed software and hardware claimed to be ‘crucial’ for new NASA technology deployed from the International Space Station. 

The tech is being used on the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), launching from the space station in July. 

Developed with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), EMIT seeks to add critical knowledge to our understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere and dust cycle, contributing to the advancement of climate science. 

The instrument consists of an imaging spectrometer which will analyse visible and infrared light to determine the composition of mineral dust clouds to determine their role in the warming and cooling of the atmosphere.

Alpha Data’s Colorado team designed and manufactured the Focal Plane Interface Electronics – Digital (FBIE-D) which handles interface between the spectrometer, the ISS, and ground teams, as well as managing the data while in space. 

The Edinburgh team developed the software and firmware used to run and configure the FPIE-D through an adaptive system-on-ship Field Programmable Gate Array (Soc FPGA).

This will allow the FPIE-D to digitise, store, and transmit the images it takes to teams on the ground and in the space station. 

EMIT will observe the Earth in advanced detail, tracking the patterns of mineral dust clouds and how they affect the atmosphere’s temperature.

EMIT’s principle investigator and senior research scientist at the JPL, Robert Green, lamented the earlier days of space research, noting the massive improvement of the new technology. 

“With this exceptional performance, we are on track to comprehensively map the minerals of Earth’s arid regions – about 25% of the Earth’s land surface – in less than a year and achieve our climate science objectives.”

 NASA hopes the technology and project will illuminate our knowledge on the atmosphere and advance climate science. 

Kate Calvin, NASA’s Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor, said: “The data we’re getting from EMIT will give us more insight into the heating and cooling of Earth, and the role mineral dust plays in that cycle.”

Recommended

• Five things you need to know about the OpenSSL patch
• Royal Mail data breach: Here’s what you need to know
• Dropbox GitHub hack: What happened?

The amount of data already collected by the mission is “promising,” Calvin continued.

David Dolman, Senior FPGA, Electronics, and Software Design Engineer of Alpha Data who led the Alpha Data EMIT development said: “The EMIT mission will advance our knowledge and understanding of dust’s effects throughout the Earth system and to human populations now and in the future.

This instrument sets a new standard in high-performance onboard processing and storage of data that is being used on the Space Station.”