Self-assembling Wireless Autonomous Reconfigurable Module Design Concept
- Paper number
IAC-05-B5.6.B.04
- Author
Ms. Shuonan Dong, Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Presently, spacecraft for the most part tend to be developed as point-designs, meant to optimize their particular tasks and missions. Launch costs are so high, and launch opportunities so rare, that it is only natural for program managers and engineers to try to include as much functionality as possible into each satellite. For this reason, most spacecraft are one-of-a-kind or few-of-a-kind creations. While components or subsystems may be re-used from one spacecraft to the next, there is usually a very high degree of customization, which in turn leads to inevitable increases in testing and verification costs, along with unavoidable reductions in reliability. The Self-assembling Wireless Autonomous Reconfigurable Module concept entails a set of small satellites which can perform the functionality of a large integrated system, but have the advantage of avoiding substantial up-front design cost, flexibilty in the reconfiguration of the system, sub-system level testing capability, marginal cost benefits of large production runs, and ease of on-orbit sub-system repair and replacement. These small satellite modules can be reconfigured to execute a large variety of possible tasks, such as astronaut assistance or solar tracking. The modules use wireless communication which minimizes hard interfaces between sub-systems, and remaining structural interfaces are standardized and autonomous. Certain modules, such as computer, attitude control, and propulsion work together to provide autonomy in sensing and mobility. This paper endeavors to describe the motivation and purpose, conceptual design, implementation procedures, and test performance results of the Self-assembling Wireless Autonomous Reconfigurable Module system.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-B5.6.B.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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