Derating Off-the-shelf Parts So They Work
Tuesday, July 3, 2012 - 13:50
in Physics & Chemistry
If you use off-the-shelf electronics parts instead of expensive, hard-to-find space-rated gear, will your satellite work? The process of 'derating' will let you do this. Engineer Amanda Shields contributes today's guest column.I'm becoming very familiar with derating and the joys of it. Electrical components for spacecraft have to be derated. Basically, that means that you take the electrical component and you look at the data sheet for that piece and you have to say "Well, according to the datasheet it can have a maximum input power of XX, but NASA says that it has to be derated to 80% of that, so we can actually only have an input power of YY". read more