Avionics Architectures for Exploration: Building a better approach for (Human) Spaceflight Avionics

Abstract

The field of Avionics is advancing far more rapidly in terrestrial applications than in space flight applications. Spaceflight Avionics are not keeping pace with expectations set by terrestrial experience, nor are they keeping pace with the need for increasingly complex automation and crew interfaces as we move beyond Low Earth Orbit. NASA must take advantage of the strides being made by both space-related and terrestrial industries to drive our development and sustaining costs down. This paper describes ongoing efforts by the Avionics Architectures for Exploration (AAE) project chartered by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Program to evaluate new avionic architectures and technologies, provide objective comparisons of them, and mature selected technologies for flight and for use by other AES projects. Results from the AAE project's FY13 efforts are discussed, along with the status of FY14 efforts and future plans.

On TTEthernet for Integrated Fault-Tolerant Spacecraft Networks

“…The Integrated Power, Avionics, and Software (IPAS) facility at Johnson Space Center (JSC) is used extensively to demonstrate integration, providing a flexible evaluation environment for avionics components and software in a realistic framework of vehicle subsystems. 6 …”

Avionics Architectures for Exploration: Wireless technologies and human spaceflight

“…We have also made significant strides toward the goal of a flexible avionics architecture that can be used to evaluate future concepts/architectures/components for both our nominal L2 Station and other vehicles [1,2,3].…”