Page:Project Longshot - Advanced Design Program Project Report.pdf/51

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3.5 Data Processing
One of the significant "enabling technologies" required to perform the interstellar probe mission is that of advanced processing. When the spacecraft reaches its target, the probe will be 4.3 light-years away from command and control facilities on Earth, and will thus have to be completely autonomous and self-repairing. The processing system will ideally have low power consumption to reduce heat dissipation requirements. It will be multiply redundant with advanced shielding and survivability features, and also be able to control all facets of probe operations, including high level decision-making. As shown in the sectional appendix, the probe must evaluate given mission objectives to control the scientific instruments in order to explore the Alpha Centauri system most effectively. If the system can integrate high-accuracy attitude determination and scientific data instantaneously, the attitude control requirement can be relaxed to a level easily maintained by such a large structure. Finally, the data must be taken out of processor's memory and sent to earth via laser. The communications lasers must be pointed with an accuracy of 0.67 arcseconds, and a hard file of the position of the earth relative to Sol must be retained in memory to govern the pointing of the laser. Once the target system is reached, the processing unit must be able to