Spacecraft Erasable Disk Mass Memory (EDMM)

A low cost alternative to tape recorders has been developed by Spectrum Astro, Inc. in an experimental program under the sponsorship of the USAF Phillips Laboratory and the ARPA Advanced Space Technology Program. The erasable disk magnetic memory (EDMM) data storage system has been developed and has completed environmental qualification for space flight. A hermetically sealed and vibration isolated enclosure was designed to accommodate a commercial state-of-the-art hard disk drive. This effort has resulted a space qualified data storage system that weighs less than 4.5 Kg, consumes 17 watts of power for record and playback, will record data at 24 Mbps and will store 8 G-bits of data. This paper describes the development program, the test program, the test results and plans for future development including space flight.