Achieving Multipurpose Space Imaging with the ARTEMIS Reconfigurable Payload Processor

The components that comprise the advanced responsive tactically effective military imaging spectrometer (ARTEMIS) payload processor, to be deployed on the AFRL TacSat-3 satellite, provide a flexible and high-performance platform upon which space imaging applications can be deployed. The payload system consists of an FPGA camera interface and processing board as well as a G4-based single board computer among other components. The combination of FPGA and general-purpose processor provides resources attuned to strike a balance between compute-intensive sensor data extraction processing and administrative tasks such as health monitoring and information downlink. This paper provides a description of the system design and highlights the system´s performance and flexibility.