Application of Self-configuring Network for Plug-and-Play Device Control

"Next generation spacecraft would benefit substantially from aself-configuring, fault tolerant, open system architecture to allowreduced cost and increased design modularity and flexibility. Thekey to achieving this is through the development of a low power MEMSnetwork interface that will include a protocol for plug-and-play typeexchange, re-configuration, and graceful degradation of avionicscomponents. As such, Microcosm proposes to develop and fly a prototypeself-configuring, fault tolerant interconnect communication system, bothhardware and software, that can be used on next generation spacecraftfor networking basic sensor systems as well as the complete attitudecontrol system (ACS). We will build on the evaluation of emergingtechnologies compiled during the Phase I work, to create a networkinterface and control module and associated protocol. These networkelements will be demonstrated during a flight test of the MicrocosmScorpiusr SR-XM-2 suborbital launch vehicle, scheduled for flight inearly 2003. Development will be completed in further lab testing to theend of Phase II,yielding a prototype network ready to migrate to atechnology demonstration spacecraft for ACS application."