The lack of interface standards for information exchange among spacecraft subsystems/avionics together with non-standardized architecture have resulted in high cost spacecraft systems with long integration and test times and increased flight operational complexity. Industry constantly driven to increase performance is in need of a practical means to minimize cost, shorten development schedule and simplify design. To support these goals, the Welch Engineering and Hughes Space and Communications team is pleased to propose to develop a novel architecture coupled with interface standards to allow optimal cooperation and information sharing among spacecraft subsystems such as power, propulsion, communications, and control disciplines. The proposed approach employs STEP-EXPRESS as the baseline to define interface standards for spacecraft Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) avionics. STEP based interface standards will allow GN&C avionics to effectively exchange information among themselves as well as to other spacecraft avionics while the EXPRESS Language Based Modeling Approach (ELBMA) provides checks to insure that information is complete, unambiguous, and non-redundant. ELBMA will model interface standards of all GN&C avionics and define the object oriented Interface Control Database (ICD) to provide optimal information sharing and effective cross-communication among spacecraft subsystems. Cross-platform avionics communication is achieved via CORBAnet-like mechanism.
Potential Commercial Applications:The success of this project will lay important groundwork for future development of GN&C interface standards for the entire aerospace industry. As a result, cost effective products and parts for spacecraft, missiles, and many other systems such as aircraft, submarines, automobiles, etc. will be practically produced and available to users at a much more affordable price. Interface standardization facilitates the growth of the entire aerospace industry.
