Autonomic Providing Pre-Programmed Death of Cubesats for Avoiding Space JUNK

Apoptotic Computing is inspired by the apoptosis mechanism in biological systems. This mechanism provides security for the overall system by having a pre-programmed death and indeed a death by default at, for instance, the cellular level. It has been argued that this approach should be included in our modern ubiquitous/pervasive computer-based systems. This paper presents a first step prototype ultilizing apoptotic computing for CubeSats, pre-programming death with the intent to ensure that CubeSats do not add to the proliferation of Space Junk. In addition, to support that apoptotic mechanism, autonomicity (self-management) is utilised and the paper considers more general swarm task assignment and control protocols.