Paper Category: Systems Engineering & Integration
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Agile Earth Observation Under Operational Constraints: CMG vs Reaction-Wheel ACS
As small commercial Earth Observation constellations expand, operators strive to collect more data and increase value per spacecraft while maintaining low costs and deployment times. In this context, spacecraft agility is often overlooked in constellation design: how quickly a satellite can rotate and then meet pointing requirements largely sets how many targets it can image…
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Hardware Security Subsystem for On-board Cybersecurity
Fuelled by the New Space economy, there is a critical demand for enhanced cybersecurity in satellites, a necessity that is increasingly recognised yet remains challenging to meet due to resource constraints, system complexity, and maintenance costs. Robust security implementations across individual satellite subsystems traditionally require specialised cryptographic expertise, costly maintenance of the cryptographic software stack,…
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Progressive Radiation Hardness Assurance for COTS SmallSat Avionics Beyond LEO
As European SmallSat missions increasingly target higher orbits such as medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO), radiation hardness assurance (RHA) requires substantially greater attention than in low Earth orbit (LEO) applications due to the more severe radiation environments. SmallSat avionics architectures frequently rely on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, for which radiation mitigation is…
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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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Systems Engineering approach for a next generation modular satellite platform ‘Astrocore’
The Astrocore project is a strategic initiative by ISISPACE to develop a next-generation satellite avionics suite. It aims to meet the evolving demands of the small satellite market, with a scalable form factor from 6U up to small satellites under 250kg. The development effort is requirement based: User needs from 4 reference missions were identified…
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Space Debris Pulverization Systems for Low Earth Orbits
European policy on space debris mitigation is fast evolving to contain the increasing demand for launch of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), whose specifications fail to meet ESA latest and more stringent requirements. Referring to the decrease of the maximum permanence in operational orbit from 25 years to 5 years after End of…
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Rapid Ground and Management Capability for Hybrid LEO–GEO SmallSat Systems
The Bottleneck: Small satellite initiatives have outpaced the ground segments meant to support them. While software-defined payloads and standardized platforms have evolved, ground architectures remain fragmented by vendor, orbit, and mission. This drives unsustainable integration cycles and costs. Ground systems—not spacecraft—are now a limiting factor for global deployment speed and resilience. Solution: This paper presents…
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Payload Data Delivery Solutions and Optimisation for GSaaS Operations
As satellite constellations grow in scale and diversity, efficient payload data delivery has become a critical bottleneck in Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) architectures. This paper investigates various payload data delivery methods and presents optimisation strategies tailored to operational requirements and mission profiles. We systematically analyze multiple delivery paradigms including real-time streaming protocols (TCP/IP,…
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Towards an open source, systems-level mission planning and analysis tool
The traditional systems engineering workflow requires synthesis of subsystem design information into technical budgets, performance simulations, and other metrics of mission credibility and value. Projects often use a diverse mixture of spreadsheet calculators and custom and commercial simulation software to draw mission-level conclusions from subsystem-level design information and requirements. This approach suffers from two inefficiencies.…
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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…