Reliability After launch, on-site repairs are usually out of the question. As such, standard earth based solutions like cable ferrites or heavy shielding are usually impractical. Weight It typically costs over $10,000 per pound to launch hardware into space. Here are some comments on each of these constraints. EMC Constraints in Space These include weight, reliability, environment, and cost. In addition, many space programs involve numerous contractors so the management, integration, and partitioning of requirements becomes crucial to success. (That frustration was the catalyst for our 2003 article in Interference Technology, “Military EMC and the Revival of EMC Systems Engineering.”) The solution is to learn and to understand the EMC impact of the unique 20%, while building on the experience of the common 80%.So what makes EMC in space unique? First, there are severe constraints, and second, there are several special problems. We’ve seen this happen several times when commercial EMC “experts” moved into other areas like medical, automotive, military, avionics, and, of course, space systems. Much of the time, however, the unique problems are also the most interesting and challenging.This 80/20 split can be frustrating to those who move from one industry to another, even those with considerable EMC experience. Consistent with Paretto’s Law, about 80% of the EMC issues are common across the electronics industry, while probably 20% are unique to each individual industry. Space EMC Vs Conventional EMC After working on hundreds of EMC problems in a wide range of industries, we’ve come to a simple conclusion. Although tutorial by nature, we hope that even the “EMC space experts” will enjoy our efforts. In this article, we’ll share some of our experiences and perspectives on this exciting industry. Like other industries, space programs have many of their own special EMC problems and concerns. Some were defense-related, and others were related to ongoing space research. As EMC consulting engineers, we’ve worked on several space projects over the years. It was great to hear key industry experts share their pragmatic insights from several different perspectives, and we hope the EMC Society will continue with these types of industry-oriented sessions. Last year’s IEEE EMC Symposium (Santa Clara, CA – 2004) even featured a special session on EMC in space, titled “Aerospace EMC at the Centennial of Flight.” Unlike the traditional theoretical sessions, this one focused on practical issues. Some of us in the EMC business have even been fortunate enough to spend some (or all) or our careers dealing with space, that “final frontier.”Thanks to increased defense spending, there has been an increased interest in space programs. We well remember names like Sputnik, Mercury, Gemini, and of course, Apollo. Many of us in the EMC business came of age during the “space race” of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Successfully dealing with EMC in space systems requires strong EMC engineering
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