DARA OBC — On-Board Computer
Alén Space
Low-power ARM Cortex-M7 OBC (TRL-9) for nanosatellites. 280 mW typical power, integrated IMU (mag + gyro + accel), GNSS, and FreeRTOS with PC/104 form factor.
Technical specifications
- TRL
- TRL-9 (Flight Heritage)
- Processor
- ARM Cortex-M7, up to 280 MHz
- RTOS
- FreeRTOS (CSP compatible)
- Typical Power
- 280 mW
- IMU — Magnetometer
- 3-axis digital
- IMU — Gyroscope
- 3-axis
- IMU — Accelerometer
- 3-axis
- GNSS
- Internal (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou) or External PPS
- Watchdog
- Hardware monitoring with autonomous restart
- Form Factor
- PC/104
- Certification
- ISO 9001
About
The DARA OBC is Alén Space’s dedicated On-Board Computer for nanosatellites and microsatellites. Built around an ARM Cortex-M7 microcontroller running at up to 280 MHz, it provides low-power satellite management with a typical power consumption of just 280 mW.
Developed and tested to TRL-9 with flight heritage from Alén Space missions, DARA is a trusted satellite brain for cubesat-class spacecraft. It runs FreeRTOS with CSP (CubeSat Space Protocol) compatibility, ensuring interoperability with the wider small satellite ecosystem.
DARА includes an integrated IMU suite: 3-axis magnetometer, 3-axis gyroscope, and 3-axis accelerometer — providing attitude sensing directly on the OBC card. GNSS functionality is available either via an internal receiver (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou) or an external GNSS with PPS input.
A hardware watchdog circuit monitors the system and can autonomously restart it if anomalies are detected — critical for autonomous on-orbit operations. The PC/104 form factor ensures compatibility with Alén Space’s other subsystems (TREVO, TOTEM) and standard cubesat platforms. ISO 9001 certified manufacturing at the Alén Space facility in Nigrán, Spain.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
