Trade study and application of symbiotic software and hardware fault-tolerance on a microcontroller-based avionics system

Spacecraft avionics initially commanded the development of the microprocessor industry, enabling microprocessors to be designed specifically for the reliability demands posed by the radiation environment of space. However, microprocessor have shifted their focus from ensuring reliable operations to maximizing performance, forcing the price of spacecraft avionics to balloon. Costing over three orders of magnitude more than current state of the art general purpose processors, while performing operations an order of magnitude slower. These differences stem from the reliability requirements of operating in space, typically achieved through hardware-based modifications. While these solutions generate the necessary reliability, they limit the engineering options for the system and force the use of outdated technology. A solution researched but never widely implemented, is the use of error detection and correction software algorithms. An ideal design lies in the combination of hardware and software methods for providing reliability. A new avionics architecture was designed to implement a system using hardware and software to achieve reliability with COTS products. The architecture was applied to the CASTOR satellite as its primary avionics system, for verification testing of the architecture's functionality. This architecture further aims to expand spacecraft usage of microcontrollers as the primary spacecraft avionics computers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• McCormack, Matthew Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alvar Saenz-Otero and David W. Miller.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67194

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/67194