MEMS for space applications

Abstract

Summary form only given. At NASA, the focus for smaller, less costly missions has encouraged the development of microspacecraft. MEMS technology advances in terms of sensors, propulsion systems, and instruments make the notion of a specialized microspacecraft feasible in the immediate future. Emerging MEMS technology offers the integration of recent advances in micromachining and nanofabrication techniques with microelectronics in a mass-producible format, and is viewed as the next step in device and instrument miniaturization. MEMS technology has the potential to enable or enhance NASA missions in numerous ways. The technology allows component and system miniaturization, where the primary benefit is reduction in size, mass and power. MEMS technology also provides new capabilities and enhanced performance, with the greatest impact in performance, regardless of system size. Finally, with the availability of mass-produced, miniature MEMS instrumentation comes the opportunity to rethink fundamental measurement paradigms. It is now possible to expand horizons from a single instrument perspective to one involving multi-node or distributed systems. Distributed systems and missions give a new system in which functionality is enabled by a multiplicity of elements. In the future, integration of electronics, photonics, and micromechanical functionalities into "instruments-on-a-chip" will provide the ultimate size, cost, function and performance advantages. This presentation discusses recent developments and applications of MEMS technologies and devices for space applications.