Driving the Internet of Space Things through Adoption of Commercial Technologies, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Information Technology

Download Driving the Internet of Space Things through Adoption of Commercial Technologies and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Information Technology in PDF only on Docsity! Research-Based Document Driving the Internet of Space Things through Adoption of Commercial Technologies Introduction The adoption and use of cutting-edge commercial technologies in space applications have enabled the design of smaller, lighter, and more-powerful vehicles, lowering launch costs and providing greater mission capability than possible a decade ago. Smaller mission-capable devices called CubeSats have emerged, bringing space experiments and research into classrooms, smaller corporations, and institutions. CubeSats also broaden the types of missions performed for commercial and defense markets. This Internet of Space Things (loST) will continue to grow and expand as adoption of commercial systems and network technologies provides increased processing power, sensor capability, and interconnect fabrics that link collaborative space systems into massive orbital micro-data centers. Taking advantage of the modularity in commercial-off-the- shelf (COTS) systems, these loST devices will replace many monolithic, proprietary, and special-purpose space systems to: further reduce costs, increase scalability and flexibility in mission design, and reduce development time needed to put platforms into orbit. Ultimately, many space systems may consist of networked, modular functional units responsible for various tasks and functions that are docked into required mission-specific configurations. After missions are completed, the systems are broken down into modular elements again and are ready for reuse. loST devices have rigorous design requirements to be able to exist in space and will need to operate autonomously while collaborating with other systems in orbit. Scalable, orbital processor and data storage clusters will provide always- available analytics capability and advanced situational awareness for many commercial, federal, and defense use cases. This orbital “dynamic edge” will require a software fabric capable of supporting commercial hardware platforms and providing performant, scalable, and resilient node networking; advanced distributed computing capabilities; and seamless upgrading to support new use cases and mission profiles. Intel's Situational Awareness at the Dynamic Edge (SADE) is a software framework designed to meet these challenges and is ideally suited for the rapidly emerging loST applications segment. The use of COTS technology in space applications Historically, there was very little COTS technology in space. With the drive toward putting more, smaller satellites of an loST system into orbit, companies are looking to move away from proprietary to commercial technologies. They're opting for faster technology development at a lower price, with better availability and compatibility. They want to have a major technology partner with breadth and capability that understands modular open systems and can help them take advantage of solutions available in the commercial world. Intel has demonstrated that it can provide the functionality required for space applications with COTS components. The first use of a commercial 32-bit processor in a NASA spacecraft was the Intel 80386 and its peripheral support ICs, deployed in NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) spacecraft that launched in 1992. The explorer had a five-year life-span goal but actually operated for nearly 20 years." Intel include components that are appropriate for mission operators and autonomous systems as well as technology that makes satellites more resilient to failure and capable of operating under extremely challenging conditions. Intel radiation disclosure information can be provided on a case by case basis. Intel FPGAs and Intel Xeon D processors can process radio signals received at the ground with high speeds. From processing and storage in LEO satellites to receiving ground stations, Intel has a family of products that are COTS based with open source tools for lower cost and exceptional performance. Figure 1: Heterogeneous CubeSat swarm. Driving the Internet of Space Things through Adoption of Commercial Technologies loST and the dynamic edge loST devices have numerous potential applications. For example, loST devices operating in low Earth orbit can be deployed like drones to multiple locations around the globe to capture near-real-time multimodal sensor data for use by ground control and mission operators. They can be tasked to behave like a cluster of vehicles, providing customized capabilities with resilience to operational loss if one or more of the individual units are lost or damaged. They can also perform simple mechanical operations in space such as repairs of external systems on spacecraft. Or, through modular design, these loST devices may physically displace a failed system by docking to a larger vehicle and becoming a replacement wireless sensor or data processing array. loST design requirements With the proper software infrastructure, COTS-based devices can be developed and deployed more rapidly and less expensively than they can be using today’s custom devices. Moreover, the adaptation of commercial technology to space use by third parties could enable new features and capabilities for loST devices to meet rapidly growing challenges. Multiple low-cost loST devices operating in coordinated, modular fashion can be used ina variety of exploration and defense/ intelligence operations, removing the need to deploy costly monolithic satellite assets. Several key systems are required: loST technology must have a software fabric for machine-to- machine and human-to-autonomous-system collaboration that extends independent mission operation beyond line of sight. This can reduce dependency on vehicle to ground- control communication to meet mission objectives. Anetworked multinode platform architecture could support redundancy and scalability in operational scenarios. This provides the ability to relocate relevant software workloads to the most-capable and -available platforms while providing for scalability of the cluster of nodes as needs demand. Properly configured and with synchronized communications and operations, a cluster can operate like a micro data center in space. The dynamic edge is where multiple clustered nodes may be vulnerable to communications denial back to ground stations. Connectivity to the cloud or central data center could be denied for numerous reasons—for example, due to a remote location limiting line-of-sight communications or active signal denial. To function efficiently, loST systems need to be capable of operating autonomously at the dynamic edge, performing time-critical processing locally. They shouldn't have to rely solely on communicating with their ground-control system for computational support. The terabytes of information that would have to be sent and received would strain communications, and intermittent connectivity to the control system would hamper performance and introduce instability in the overall system. Rather, loST devices need the ability to operate independently and to be configured, dynamically, into orbital micro data centers to process computationally significant tasks. Vehicles need near-real-time situational awareness and scene intelligence capabilities to ensure that they have the necessary environmental information to navigate safely and avoid potential threats. Scene intelligence provides a high- fidelity and contextually detailed view of any interesting volume of space for simulation and evaluation. Situational awareness and scene intelligence are cornerstones to scalable collaboration of thousands of heterogeneous Internet of Space Things devices. Finally, the loST devices will require algorithms and logic enabling them to potentially operate in proximity and be capable of coordinated maneuvering using low-impulse propulsion systems. This will require a combination of multimodal sensor data, heuristic decision-making, and analytics bridged by low-latency communications. Vehicles will be capable of adapting and learning from operations in varying conditions and react appropriately to emergency scenarios. As the scope of operation of loST grows and greater distances separate command and control from the loST nodes, autonomy and self-reliance will be increasingly important, along with a local communications fabric that provides resilience of operation. Allowing teams of smaller devices to coordinate workloads and share capabilities provides critical redundancy, supporting mutual vehicle survival and overall mission success. Situational Awareness at the Dynamic Edge A dynamic edge framework can interconnect and coordinate the computational and sensor data tasks of multiple loST nodes. Intel's SADE is a software framework based ona commercial approach using a lightweight, low-latency messaging backbone. This backbone interconnects the multiple nodes with a common fabric for application deployment and intelligent execution. Upon the backbone, all microservices and applications are completely modular and containerized to provide isolation and portability from one node to another. This is beneficial for recovery and scalability purposes. All elements may exist on a single platform or may be fully distributed across a network- connected set of nodes. INN ce ee] TT elec ye VEIT act Figure 2: Situational awareness is derived from a continuous loop of operations.