Overview:
NASA’s Johnson Space Center is seeking radiation-tolerant cameras, camera systems, and H.265 encoders and decoders that can operate on the lunar surface and in deep space. NASA is interested in solutions available today or close to market.
These systems will support imagery across a wide range of lunar applications, including inside and outside habitats, on pressurized and unpressurized rovers, and on launch and landing vehicles. There is a preference for a single integrated unit that captures, encodes, and decodes imagery. If a solution consists of separate units, they must be confirmed compatible, ideally from the same vendor.
NASA is looking to build a picture of what the market can offer now, and to identify vendors it can approach directly for near-term missions.
Background:
NASA is building toward a permanent Moon Base under the Ignition Initiative. Imagery is a critical system for that effort. It supports crew situational awareness, enables day-to-day operations, has scientific value, and is how the public sees the Artemis missions.
Radiation is the main problem for imagery systems. Outside low-Earth orbit, cosmic radiation degrades imaging hardware quickly. Most commercial cameras, encoders, and decoders have not been tested in this environment, let alone designed for it. As radiation damage builds, imagery gets blurry or is lost entirely, and components have to be replaced more often. NASA is seeking imagery systems that can sustain long-term radiation exposure and have minimal disruptions.
Constraints:
Solutions must meet or exceed the following:
- 1080p video at 30 fps
- H.265 encoding
- Ability to simultaneously live stream and record imagery
- Ideally 5-year operational lifetime
Desired characteristics include:
- Recoverable operation following a radiation-induced upset (able to repower and resume operation)
- Low mass and volume
- 4K streaming at a minimum of 30 fps
- ≥20 megapixel still image capability
- Radiation Hardness Assured (RHA)
- Effective lunar dust mitigation strategy for external optics
- Integrated camera-and-encoder with decoder solution in a single unit
- Decoding capability alongside encoding, supporting multiple simultaneous streams (e.g., one encoder/decoder serving four cameras)
- Wide operational and survivable temperature range
- Low power consumption
- Higher TRL / near-term deployment
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