Building Advanced Satellite Autonomy on distributed Ledger Technology (BASALT)

The Building Advanced Satellite Autonomy on distributed Ledger Technology (BASALT) Phase I STTR program will establish the feasibility of employing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) (e.g., blockchain) to achieve multi-perspective data fusion across a network of autonomous space vehicles. Security is a paramount concern in distributed autonomy, as an attack on or failure of a very limited number of nodes in a vulnerable system can lead to a significant or even total loss of capability. BASALT will integrate the highest possible level of DLT security, known as Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (ABFT), to ensure autonomous space missions are robust to malicious attack and difficult environmental conditions. The effort will produce a DLT solution and quantify its performance in high-fidelity simulations of scenarios of interest to the Space Force. The resilience of the DLT-enabled distributed autonomy architecture will be assessed against both cyber and physical threats using customer-approved key performance parameters.  A proposed follow-on Phase II effort will advance this capability to provide a secure trust layer for future distributed autonomy missions and produce a compelling laboratory demonstration of satellite multi-perspective data fusion for applications including on-orbit servicing and logistics, debris avoidance, cislunar space situational awareness, and space object inspection and characterization.