Paper Category: Systems Engineering & Integration
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Progressive Radiation Hardness Assurance for COTS SmallSat Avionics Beyond LEO
As SmallSat missions extend beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), traditional Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) approaches based on linear qualification workflows are increasingly mismatched with Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)-based avionics programmes. This paper presents a progressive RHA methodology applied to photonic and electronic avionics that treats radiation assurance as an iterative design activity. The methodology is grounded in…
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Integrated Cyberattack Detection for Satellites
Next-generation satellites are evolving into highly interconnected cyber-physical platforms, where heterogeneous subsystems, widespread adoption of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, and emerging multi-tenant payload paradigms fundamentally reshape the spacecraft threat landscape. These trends erode traditional trust assumptions and necessitate autonomous onboard cybersecurity mechanisms capable of detecting, localising, and mitigating attacks without reliance on continuous ground intervention.…
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Predictive MPPT AI algorithm for fast response during tumbling conditions
Efficient power harvesting for small satellites is critical for mission success, especially during the initial detumbling phase and in case of attitude control anomalies. In these scenarios, the illumination conditions of the solar panels can vary at high frequency, and conventional Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) techniques may struggle to reach a point of good…
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UDAN: A Compact Deployable UHF Antenna Enabling High-Gain Links for CubeSats
The miniaturization of satellite platforms has imposed severe constraints on antenna systems, particularly for UHF links requiring high gain and polarization robustness. To address these challenges, this contribution introduces UDAN, a deployable UHF antenna concept designed to significantly enhance communication capabilities of CubeSats and other small spacecraft while remaining compliant with standard launch and deployment…
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Low SWaP Flight Board for High-Speed On-Board Data Handling, Processing and AI Inference
The continuous increase in payload data volume and mission autonomy requirements is driving the need for increasingly advanced on-board data handling and processing technologies in satellite systems. In particular, next-generation Earth observation, telecommunications, and distributed space architectures require high-performance processing capabilities to enable real-time data reduction, intelligent decision-making, and efficient use of downlink resources. Within…
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Thermal Data Interoperability for Small Satellite Missions: Integrating CAD, ETMS, and STEP-TAS
The rapid development cycles of small satellite missions require the transition from isolated engineering practices to a continuous, concurrent or model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach. A significant bottleneck remains in thermal engineering, where the manual translation of mechanical designs into thermal models- and the exchange of thermal models between different software environments – often leads…
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Operational Implications of Dynamic Power Throttling on High-Performance LEO Edge Computing
The integration of high-performance COTS (Customer Of The Shelf) processors, such as the Nvidia Jetson Orin NX, into SmallSat architectures enables advanced on-orbit edge computing but introduces significant power management challenges. Standard manufacturer power profiles typically require system reboots and lack the granularity needed to respond to dynamic LEO (Low Earth Orbit) energy constraints, such…
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Embedding Machine-Learned Anomaly Detection into Relevance-Driven Mission Operations Workflows
Anomaly detection has become a central application of machine learning in satellite operations; however, when applied in isolation, machine learning based detections alone are insufficient to support scalable mission operations. As fleets grow, operators face increasing cognitive load not from anomaly frequency, but from the need to interpret weak signals, correlate them with operational context,…
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A Distributed Data Center in Space (DCiS) Architecture for Small Satellites
Space-based data processing has emerged as a critical need for modern satellite missions in Earth observation, communications, and defense. We present DCiS (Data Center in Space), a distributed micro-data-center architecture optimized for SmallSat-class spacecraft. By deploying many small computing nodes across an orbital constellation and interconnecting them via high-speed links, DCiS enables cloud-like computing capabilities…
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A Modular Open-Source ADCS Framework for Small Satellite Development and Testing
Advanced attitude determination and control (ADCS) techniques are often difficult for small satellite teams to adopt due to tightly coupled implementations and the need to rapidly evaluate alternative architectures. Evaluating prospective ADCS options may require significant modification of existing code for specific actuator combinations, sensor hardware, orbits, mission goals, and control laws. Existing options are…