Localized Payload Management Approach to Payload Control and Data Acquisition Architecture for Space Applications

This paper presents the development of a new approach for the Payload Control and Data Acquisition Subsystem (PCDAS) to be applied in micro-, up to small-satellite systems in low earth orbits with various payloads. PCDAS is the subsystem, which interfaces with the data streams to and from the payload systems, converts data from digital interfaces into data packets for transmission to the ground-station. Control packets and telemetry are converted into appropriate digital sequences to the onboard computer. The localized payload management approach tends to design PCDAS as a stand alone subsystem, i.e. to be independent from the On-Board Computer (OBC) and all on-board payload systems. For realization, the PCDAS is implemented in VHDL, and evaluated on an SRAM-Based FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chip. The PCDAS simulated and functionally verified using a payload with four simultaneous channels, each with data rate of 60 Mbps.