Enabling advanced missions on small platforms through designing cost effective SpaceWire-based avionics solutions in the CubeSat form factor: SpaceWire missions and applications, short paper

When developing the SpaceWire based Sirius Data Handling System (DHS) for small satellites ÅAC Microtec has had to address the dual problem of designing for a low cost and in a small form factor while retaining the high performance, availability and longevity required to support advanced science. In order to achieve the low cost a number of strategies have been applied. Notably, the data handling units are generically designed to be reusable either used for other missions as a part of the platforms they were initially targeted for or for use on other platforms, including CubeSats. Also, COTS components known to withstand the space environment have been used for the designs, in a strategy to reduce component costs. To increase reliability, the Sirius DHS units are designed around a Flash-based FPGA to be tolerant to SEE through triple modular redundancy (TMR) and other fault handling techniques and implements SpaceWire as the main data bus, using nano D-sub connectors to save space and weight. The paper explores in more detail the choices made on the data handling units in order to achieve sufficiently high performance and high reliability in a CubeSat compatible form factor at a reasonable price.