Space mission resilience with inter-satellite networking

Lowe, Christopher J. and Macdonald, Malcolm (2020) Space mission resilience with inter-satellite networking. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 193. 106608. ISSN 0951-8320 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2019.106608)

[thumbnail of Lowe-Macdonald-RESS-2019-Space-mission-resilience-with-inter-satellite]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Lowe_Macdonald_RESS_2019_Space_mission_resilience_with_inter_satellite.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 logo
Download (794kB)| Preview

Abstract

Satellites typically operate in isolation from their orbiting counterparts, but communicating only with ground-based infrastructure leaves them susceptible to the consequences of on-board anomalies. Loss of payload, communication system, or other sub-system function could render the entire satellite inoperable. This susceptibility can be partially mitigated through the addition of an inter-satellite networking capability, which offers value in terms of increased general performance and an increased resilience to on-board anomalies. While a typical platform can be modelled to exhibit only two fundamental states: operational and failed, a networking-capable platform (specifically one with an inter-satellite communication capability) exhibits six states, each reached through a unique combination of sub-system malfunctions. The result of this added resilience is a reduction in the likelihood of the satellite reaching a fully-failed state. Simulations for independent and networking-capable systems are presented that illustrate the benefits and limitations of inter-satellite networking in terms of failure resilience. It is shown that whilst a networked system can be expected to reach greater levels of performance utility, sub-system anomalies are found to result in greater percentage levels of performance degradation compared to a non-networking-capable system with similar characteristics.

ORCID iDs

Lowe, Christopher J. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2964-7337 and Macdonald, Malcolm ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4499-4281;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)