Space Transportation vehicles need deterministic and reliable real-time data transmission between the different on-board units. The communication between the entities is mission-critical: if data is lost or not received on time, the consequences can be catastrophic. At the same time, the amount of data is increasing, with the addition of live video streams and more sensors for health monitoring, all trying to transfer data through the same wires as the flight-critical control system. Similar needs are being addressed in other industries with new architectural approaches such as Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).
FLPP have run three activities through the FIRST! Avionics & GNC “New Architectures for Data Handling System for Future Space Transportation” (NADaH) call which investigate making use of these approaches in Space Transportation vehicles:
- Space Applications Services (Belgium) – Software-Defined TSN Router
- GMV (Spain) – Data Distribution Service over TSN (DDS-TSN)
- Réaltra (Ireland) – Expandable, Affordable, Modular TTE Solutions for Space Applications
This event will feature the Final Presentations from all three projects, as well as an opportunity to discuss the needs of space transportation service providers (LSIs or primes) and the next steps in making use of these architectures in future vehicles.