Hardware-in-Loop Simulation of a Satellite Sensor Network for Distributed Space Applications

In this paper a hardware-in-loop simulator is presented to demonstrate the satellite sensor network concept developed at the Surrey Space Centre under the ESPACENET project. The simulator includes software that emulates satellite orbit dynamics in Low Earth Orbit and picosatellite sensor nodes. The picosatellite currently under development is based on the CubeSat platform. The main payload will be an FPGA board that implements intellectual property cores like the LEON3 processor, a media access controller for intersatellite links, image compression, encryption, etc.. The payloads of the individual satellites are connected together via IEEE 802.11 intersatellite links to demonstrate a distributed computing platform for future space missions.