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The EDSN Intersatellite Communications ArchitectureThe Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) is a swarm of eight 1.5U Cubesats developed by the NASA Ames Research Center under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) within NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). EDSN, scheduled for launch in late 2014, is designed to explore the use of small spacecraft networks to make synchronized, multipoint scientific measurements, and to organize and pass those data to the ground through their network. Networked swarms of these small spacecraft will open new horizons in astronomy, Earth observations and solar physics. Their range of applications include the formation of synthetic aperture radars for Earth sensing systems, large aperture observatories for next generation telescopes and the collection of spatially distributed measurements of time varying systems, probing the Earth's magnetosphere, Earth-Sun interactions and the Earth's geopotential. The EDSN communications network is maintained and operated by a simple set of predefined rules operating independently on all eight spacecraft without direction from ground based systems. One spacecraft serves as a central node, requesting and collecting data from the other seven spacecraft, organizing the data and passing it to a ground station at regular intervals. The central node is rotated among the spacecraft on a regular basis, providing robustness against the failure of a single spacecraft. This paper describes the communication architecture of the EDSN network and its operation with small spacecraft of limited electrical power, computing power and communication range. Furthermore, the problems of collecting and prioritizing data through a system that has data throughput bottlenecks are addressed. Finally, future network enhancements that can be built on top of the current EDSN hardware are discussed.
Document ID
20160006437
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Hanson, John
(Millennium Engineering and Integration Co. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Chartres, James
(Millennium Engineering and Integration Co. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Sanchez, Hugo
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Oyadomari, Ken
(Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
May 19, 2016
Publication Date
August 4, 2014
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Communications And Radar
Report/Patent Number
SSC14-WK-2
ARC-E-DAA-TN16085
Meeting Information
Meeting: Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites
Location: Logan, UT
Country: United States
Start Date: August 4, 2014
End Date: August 7, 2014
Sponsors: Utah State Univ., American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA13AC87C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA14AA60C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Communications
EDSN
CubeSat
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