New autonomous module could provide insight into mission failures

In the current space market, increasing complexity of space systems poses a lot of challenges to the architects and designers of these systems. This is especially true as these systems require more and more functionality but with lower power consumption, more efficiency and lower costs. All this while also having to be faster to market.

At the same time, small satellites (CubeSats) have a success rate of around 25% yet many missions are unable to send any evidence to suggest what when wrong with the satellite. This information is crucial, especially during in-orbit demonstrations, as without this information developers are left without any clues to identify weak points in their design and improve for the next missions.

A recent activity, with GSTP Element 1 and SkyLab, Austria,  has developed an Autonomous Telemetry/Telecommand module (ATTM) which can be used to identify the critical on-board situation (such as extensive power consumption of one of the subsystems or prevention against full battery discharge), mitigate it and provide critical information to those monitoring the spacecraft on the ground. To provide such functionality, the module has to be fully autonomous, ideally monitoring and controlling the power conditioning and distribution unit (PCDU) and having its own radio link with the ground station.

One of the ways manufacturers can shrink the time it takes from design to launch, is by developing a series of building blocks, already validated for space, which can be grouped in different ways to meet different needs. Commercial, off-the-shelf (COTs) components are extensively used in new space craft, to keep costs down. But COTS FPGAs are usually highly susceptible to radiation. Thus, the operation of such devices has to be monitored by a reliable supervisor.

One useful building block is a microcontroller, a flexible, low cost device that can meet a multitude of technical solutions. In this activity, the PicoSkyFT soft-core processor was identified because, by being fully autonomous, it can act as the necessary supervisor, while also being able to integrate into other platforms.

The ATTM module has been fully qualified as part of this activity. But, due to its reconfigurable nature, there are many areas where its functionality has to be expanded to better support the various changing aspects of development in the realm of small satellites.

It is planned for the ATTM to fly as part of the HERMES-SP mission. This constellation mission aims to demonstrate the feasibility of constellations for cross cutting, high quality scientific return in the field of the multi-messenger astrophysics, with production life cycle reduced by a factor of two, and costs decreased of a factor of ten.