Application of Service Oriented Architecture to emulation of onboard processing satellite systems

With increased service demands on remote sensing and communication satellites researchers are considering equipping the next generation of satellite constellations with onboard computer systems capable of general purpose computing in space. This project focuses on the design of an emulator capable of using a local area network to emulate both the passing of data between satellites and to ground-based users and the execution of data processing applications. Because satellite constellations perform a wide variety of services, the emulator design incorporates Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to allow the flexibility of running a variety of different software applications and to easily support new, as-yet designed applications. This emulator uses the Hypercast package of Java network interfaces and a modular programming structure for passing information and files between simulated satellite and user objects. The data routing is controlled through the use of the commercial software Satellite Toolkit (STK), which calculates all communication capability and quality information for any satellite constellation. The system is capable of passing any necessary data allowing for the design of a universal interface for how applications receive information and return results. Currently, this capability is tested using image capture/passing and image classification software both of which have proved successful applications on a Service Oriented Architecture system.