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This paper focuses on verification of spacecraft SW for the electrical power subsystem (EPS) for a particular geostationary satellite. Choosing an appropriate topology is a key point in the process of electrical power subsystem design. Concepts of energy transfer. i.e. Direct Energy Transfer (DET) and Peak Power Tracker (PPT) are discussed. The EPS spacecraft SW verification is based on the functionality...
In many domains, when software controls or implements safety critical functionalities, software safety and dependability analyses are needed in order to understand how it may fail, the consequences of these failures and how to avoid or mitigate these failures. But from experience in different projects, when these analyses are performed at the software level, they are not used to their maximum extent:...
Industry and big organizations recognize the value of VSEs, i.e. enterprises, organizations, projects or departments with up to 25 people [1], in contributing with emerging new technology that bigger organizations cannot use them as easily nor incorporate them in their solutions as fast. But often these potential small organizations, knowledgeable of providing these solutions, are not ready to comply...
This paper presents a methodology allowing the execution of Bounded Model Checking (via CBMC) and Abstract Interpretation (via Frama-C) analyses on large, real case, C codebases. Then the paper shows some of the results that can nowadays be achieved with relatively new tools like Clang Static Analyzer and Facebook Infer. Finally, a brief introduction on SonarQube and how it can be used to display...
Android is the most diffused environment for embedded systems. Not only mobile devices are Android powered, as matter of fact also in automotive and robotics fields, customized Android versions are currently employed. While Android offers several pro, from the stable kernel to the no usage of royalties, there are also cons, one of the most serious is related to the security of the operating systems...
From the most complex military systems to coffee machines acceptance tests are always a crucial moment for the users (at various levels) and a milestone for the project managers. How to do it right? It is often the most essential part of the project management and securely the most effective in reducing (or increasing) both time and costs as well as customer satisfaction. It sum-up the endless discussion...
This paper presents the experimental results relevant to a conical array formed by 216 passive array columns, each composed by 8 radiating elements, in terms of the embedded single column radiation patterns and sidelobes profile of the directive beam obtained grouping in array a suitable number of columns with an appropriate weighting function. Each step of the design is described, starting from the...
This paper describes an ubiquitous 2D radar, called Omega 360, capable of a rose of adjacent simultaneous staring beams which allow a continuous bi-dimensional coverage of the controlled space. In particular, the attention is focused on the antenna features obtained by means of a frustum of cone. The signal received by every column is amplified, digitally down converted and combined to form independent...
Surveillance of maritime areas attracts huge interest, because of the different activities that impact the security, safety, economy, or environment in sea domain. These activities require both the identification of areas of interest and the deployment of suitable assets. The types of assets to be deployed depend on different aspects such as their endurance, coverage and cost. The Joint Research Centre...
The capability of discriminating radar targets exhibiting multiple moving parts has become of great interest for both aerospace and ground-based target recognition and analysis. In particular, helicopters and other targets with rotors, as for instance miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, exhibit peculiar characteristics in the radar return that can be used for their recognition. In this paper a novel...
The location of the center of mass of failed or abandoned satellites is a fundamental information for a safe capturing with servicing or removing purposes. The complete observation of the satellite dynamics relative to a chaser spacecraft is often pursued by feeding Kalman filters with positions of a fixed set of features of the target. The difficulties in tracking with continuity this set pose serious...
Formation flying missions require the knowledge of the relative positions of the satellites for formation, maintenance and scientific purposes. In Low Earth Orbit, this task is typically performed by GPS-based navigation filters. However, the final accuracy, especially over long baselines, is strongly affected by the capability of correctly estimating the ionospheric delays. In this paper the performance...
Magnetometers are an integral part of attitude determination system for the low-Earth orbiting small satellites as they are lightweight, inexpensive and reliable. Yet using magnetometers for attitude determination is not straightforward because of the sensor errors. These errors limit the overall achievable attitude determination accuracy. Thus far different methods to cope with magnetometer errors...
In this paper, an alternative approach for radio-frequency (RF) design is presented. The approach is focused on reducing the design cost and time to market mainly adopting a design flow which allows to easily estimate the system performances and the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts. At the same time, it mitigates the risks typically associated with the use of such components. It is based...
Space missions require electronics providing high performances under extreme conditions. The most restrictive ones are cryogenics temperatures and radiations. Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) aims at reaching high performances, low weight and low power consumption. Therefore, simulation models available from industrial foundries are meant to work only from 230K to 430K. In this work,...
The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) is a suite of environmental sensors onboard NASA's Mars 2020 mission. The Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS), developed at Centro de Astrobiología of Spain, is one of the six sensors comprising MEDA, and it will measure the net thermal infrared radiation and reflected solar radiation at the surface, as well as the atmospheric and surface skin temperatures...
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