Development of a satellite sensor network for future space missions

Abstract

Future spacecraft are envisioned as autonomous, miniature, intelligent and massively distributed systems. At the Surrey Space Centre, a research project is currently under investigation, which aims to develop a picosatellite sensor network using the CubeSat platform. The proposed satellite sensor network will be used to demonstrate technology advances in space, including modified IEEE 802.11 wireless standard for inter-satellite links (ISL), distributed computing for computationally intensive onboard signal processing, and reconfigurable system-on-a-chip (SoC) design. ©2008 IEEE.