Scalable Avionics for the DLR Micro- and Minisatellite Platforms S2TEP and COMPSAT

Abstract

With the first minisatellite mission in the final stages of integration and a new microsatellite mission entering phase C, there are a number of activities focused on avionics systems in progress at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The department of Avionics Systems at the DLR Institute of Space Systems is responsible for addressing the challenges facing the avionics systems for both satellite classes. After a brief introduction of the mini- and microsatellite classes and their first missions Eu:CROPIS and S2TEP-1, we would like to share some insights on the progress made since the last presentation of our on-board computer related activities at DASIA 2014. Since then we have contributed an implementation of our base level on-board design as secondary payload to Eu:CROPIS and started to update and extend it for use as the command and data handling subsystem of S2TEP-1. Our aim is to provide a scalable CDH solution for future missions that utilize either the S2TEP or the COMPSAT bus. In order to achieve this goal we need to leverage existing standardization efforts, such as SAVOIR and SpaceVPX, thus creating reusable systems. Beyond the current command and data handling solutions of our satellite buses, our research project Scalable on-board Computing for Space Avionics (ScOSA) aims to extend our toolbox with a high-performance, distributed and reliable on-board computer. Consisting of a heterogeneous network of computing nodes that are either reliable space-qualified or high-performance COTS components, it will significantly increase the performance and flexibility of our on-board computer systems.