In the past couple of decades, The Aerospace Corporation has seen an increase in demand for single-event effects (SEE) testing which rely on heavy-ion facilities located around the world. As there are only a few U.S.-based facilities, the demand for testing hours is significantly exceeding the supply of hours available across all of the facilities. This gap, depicted in the graphic to the right, increases the risk for programs which require more urgent and/or time-sensitive SEE testing.

As a response, The Aerospace Corporation has been developing alternative SEE testing methods that do not rely on heavy ion facilities. These alternative methodologies have, and will continue to, offset the time and costs associated with heavy-ion based SEE testing resulting in a more rapid insertion of new technologies in next-generation spacecraft.