CPU's in Space: As you know there are many objects flying around our earth or  through space with computers in it. The cpus of this computers must be very reliable and fail-proof. So it is important to take long time proof and tested cpu's which should also be easy to program. The next challenge for engineers are thermal problems and radioactive radiation. Cooling with a heat sink and a blower in a space probe is impossible because of the missing atmosphere. The cpu can only radiate the heat, and this is not so efficient as air-cooling. So the engineers use military processors with high thermal range and  low  frequency. Most in ceramic package with gold. Against the high radioactive radiation in space, about 100 kRAD (1 kRAD will kill a human!) they use specially tested and selected cpus with a special coat on the die core. So they are able to work without  errors. Most cpus that pass come from the center of a wafer. This eliminates edge defects and generally makes for a more radiation resistant device. Many  spacecrafts use a couple of processors. Either for redundancy or to split tasks. It is very important to separately control  each component of a spacecraft. This would be impossible if one cpu controlled them all. So if one processor dies, it only would disable one instrument, not the whole ship!
	Space Craft Info CPU Pioneer 10 & 11 1972 Custom CPU in TTL A popular myth has it that Pioneer 10 used an Intel 4004. Pioneer 10was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt. It is surely the first human-built object to have been set upon a trajectory leading out of the solar system. The last signal from Pioneer 10 was received on January 23, 2003, when it was 7.5 billion miles from Earth. Skylab 1973 TC-1 a space qualified IBM 360 system, 16 bit technology. The software of the CPU was compatible to the AP 101 Skylab was the United States' first space station, and the second space station visited by a human crew. It was also the only space station NASA launched alone. The 100-ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979. Viking 1976 RCA 1802 Viking was controlled by a RCA 1802  microprocessor CPU,  and fabricated on sapphire (Silicon on Sapphire) which is a radiation-and static-hardened material ideal for spacecraft operation. NASA's Viking program consisted of a pair of space probes sent to Mars. It was the most expensive and ambitious mission ever sent to Mars. It was highly successful and formed most of the database of information about Mars until the late 1990s. After separation and landing, the lander had a mass of about 600 kg and the orbiter 900 kg. Picture of Lander Voyager 1 & 2 1977 RCA 1802 Voyager have three RCA 1802 CPUs running at 6.4 MHz. These CPUs sent to space were operating at full military specification temperatures (-55 to +125 °C). Voyager 1 is currently the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling away from both the Earth and the Sun at a speed that corresponds to a greater specific energy than any other probe. In 1990, Voyager 1 took the first ever "family portrait" of our solar system as seen from outside! It is estimated that both Voyager crafts have sufficient electrical power to operate their radio transmitters until at least after 2025. Space Shuttle 1981 Intel 8086 and RCA 1802 (display controller) - Later Intel 80386 The Space shuttle uses the APA-101S computer (5 of them for redundancy). It use a couple megs of ferrite core memory (which is impervious to radiation). The entire control software for the shuttle is less then one meg. The new glass cockpit in the shuttle runs on Intel 80386s The Shuttle is the first orbital spacecraft designed for partial reusability. It carries payloads to low Earth orbit and performs servicing missions. The orbiter can also recover satellites and other payloads from orbit and return them to Earth. Galileo 1989 RCA 1802 AMD 2901 The spacecraft was controlled by a RCA 1802 Cosmac microprocessor CPU, at about 1.6 MHz. The Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem was controlled by 2x4 pieces 2901 bitslice processors. 4 chips make a full  CPU.   Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft sent by NASA to study the planet Jupiter and its moons. It arrived at Jupiter in 1995. At launch, the orbiter and probe together had a mass of 2,564 kilograms and was seven meters tall. 2003 Galileo's mission was terminated by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of nearly 50 kilometers per second. Hubble Space Telescope 1990 80486 Originally a DF-224 (8-bit). On the first service mission added a 386 coprocessor. The Hubble now runs on a 80486 The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the space shuttle in April 1990. It has a mass of 11100 kg. Diameter: 2,4m ; Collecting era: 4,5 m²; Focal length: 57,4 m; Orbit high: 559 km; Orbit velocity: 7500 m/s Sojourner (on Mars) 1996 Intel 80C85 The embedded computer on board the Sojourner rover was based around the 100 KHz Intel 80C85 CPU with 512 KB of RAM and 176 KB of flash memory solid-state storage. The probe consisted of a lander and a lightweight (10.6 kilograms/23 pounds) wheeled robot (Rover) called Sojourner. The robot was remotely controlled, but had a basic camera-assisted autonomous control system allowing it to navigate and negotiate minor obstacles without operator intervention. International  Space Station 1998 Intel 80386SX-20 & 80387 There are several computers on the ISS. The most important are the command computers which use the i386. The ISS is a research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015. As of 2009 the ISS is the largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit, larger than any previous space station. Spirit & Opportunity Rovers 2004 BAE RAD6000 (25MHz Max) The RAD6000 radiation-hardened single board computer, based on the IBM RISC Single Chip CPU, was manufactured by IBM. Primary among the mission's scientific objectives is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The rovers are six-wheeled, solar-powered robots which stand 1.5 m high, 2.3 m wide and 1.6 m long. They weigh 180 kg, 35 kg of which is the wheel and suspension system. USS Enterprise NCC-1701 2286 IBMTEL MOCM (Multi Organic Core Module) neural system included awareness. The USS Enterprise is providing a antimatter engine and a material transporter. This transporter allows also to beam humans on the surface of a planet. The maximum velocity is warp 10.
	awesome, it's a pity that we are not able to see this great future alive. ~~~~~