Designing of Reliable, Low-Power, and Performance-Efficient Onboard Computer Architecture for CubeSats

Technological innovations in small satellites especially CubeSats have become attractive because of their low development cost and numerous applications, such as Earth remote sensing, rural connectivity, and space exploration. Like many satellites, CubeSats also entails the integration of different subsystems for successful execution of the mission(s) requirements. Among these subsystems, onboard computer (OBC) is one of the integral parts of the CubeSat and its failure could result in the loss of the entire mission. This article presents a study guide to design any mission-specific OBC for CubeSats with considerations to make it reliable while assessing performance and power consumption. Reliability is addressed by electronic components selection, architectural design, and fault-tolerant techniques at both hardware and software levels. A performance enhancement methodology is also discussed by coherent selection of storage devices, interfaces, and the processing unit. Then, different hardware and software level techniques are discussed to reduce OBC power consumption. Finally, an OBC architectural design is proposed for the National CubeSat of Pakistan (ICUBE-N) while considering its reliability, low-power consumption, and enhanced performance.