What is radiation hardening?

Why space radiation is a problem

A 2011 explainer from the European Space Agency (ESA) says space is filled with energetic particles from:

• the Sun
• belts held in Earth's magnetic field
• cosmic rays arriving from beyond the solar system

ESA describes three main effects on components. Single event effects occur when one particle crosses a chip and leaves behind an electric charge. That charge can flip a memory bit or trigger latch-up, a short circuit that runs out of control and can burn out the circuit. Total ionizing dose refers to defects that accumulate in a chip's oxide layers. Displacement damage means particles knock atoms out of place in the semiconductor crystal. Both gradually degrade electrical performance. ESA adds that as circuit features have shrunk they run on less charge, which makes them easier for charged particles to disrupt.

How it works

NASA's small spacecraft avionics chapter, dated May 19, 2026, describes radiation-hardened-by-design methods. Here, chipmakers alter a chip's transistors, logic gates and physical layout so it resists upsets and latch-up by construction. The chapter also lists supporting measures: error-correcting codes, watchdog timers, scrubbing and redundancy. The European standard ECSS-Q-ST-60-15C Rev.1, dated March 20, 2025, sets requirements for radiation hardness assurance covering all three effects.

NASA's chapter says commercial off-the-shelf parts typically outperform rad-hard equivalents, use less energy and cost less, but tend to be very vulnerable to radiation. It says small satellites have traditionally paired commercial processors and memory with rad-hardened supporting electronics.

Where things stand in 2026

In a May 12, 2026 article, NASA said missions fly older chips, developed years earlier, because they are robust and dependable. NASA lists the computer on its Perseverance rover as a radiation-hardened BAE RAD 750 processor. NASA says it runs at up to 200 megahertz with 256 megabytes of random access memory. It says the rover carries two identical computers so a backup is always available. The May 2026 article described NASA's High Performance Spaceflight Computing processor. It said the chip, built by Microchip Technology, was designed to offer as much as 100 times the computing capacity of today's spaceflight computers. NASA said testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory began in February 2026. It said indications showed the chip operating at 500 times the performance of the radiation-hardened chips now in use. As of that article, the processor had not yet been certified for spaceflight.