7th International Conference on Communications and Networking in China

Research Article

Design and Implementation of a Low-cost Fault-Tolerant On-Board Computer for Micro-Satellite

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/ChinaCom.2012.6417462,
        author={Shiqiang Tian and Zuobiao Yin and Jian Yan and Xuming Liu},
        title={Design and Implementation of a Low-cost Fault-Tolerant On-Board Computer for Micro-Satellite},
        proceedings={7th International Conference on Communications and Networking in China},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={CHINACOM},
        year={2012},
        month={9},
        keywords={on-board computer commercial-off-the-shelf linux fault-tolerant},
        doi={10.1109/ChinaCom.2012.6417462}
    }
    
  • Shiqiang Tian
    Zuobiao Yin
    Jian Yan
    Xuming Liu
    Year: 2012
    Design and Implementation of a Low-cost Fault-Tolerant On-Board Computer for Micro-Satellite
    CHINACOM
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/ChinaCom.2012.6417462
Shiqiang Tian1,*, Zuobiao Yin2, Jian Yan2, Xuming Liu1
  • 1: Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 100084
  • 2: Aerospace Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 100084
*Contact email: tsq04ster@gmail.com

Abstract

In recent years, as an important frontier of astronautics, micro-satellites have been widely used for various space-oriented missions. During various on-board components, the on-board computer (OBC) is essential to take charge of many tasks such as command and data handing, communication and payload management. However, the resources on micro-satellites are so limited that the OBC should not only meet the requirements of excellent performance and high reliability, but also be in proper power consumption and cost. The purpose of this paper is to present a solution for developing a low-cost, low power consumption and reliable OBC system for micro-satellites. The proposed system is based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and Linux operating system. Besides, considering the harsh space environment, a set of fault tolerant strategies are introduced to improve the reliability of the OBC. Finally, the analysis and test results are provided to illustrate the relatively low-cost, low power consumption and high reliability of the proposed OBC system.