Nanosatellites

3 I-2bOperational Systems

Lucas Ramos Hissa and Rogerio Atem de Carvalho

Reference Centre for Embedded and Aerospace Systems (CRSEA), Innovation Hub, Instituto Federal Fluminense (IFF), Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil

3.1 Introduction

Adopting a technology into projects in an area with lots of other consolidated technologies and methods is always a challenge. So the real-time operational systems (RTOSs) in the aerospace area can be introduced among all the limitations imposed by the environment where spacecraft operate, such as the exposition to radiation and the communication issues with the Earth. The process of changing the way of how software is developed for spacecraft can bring a lot of benefits at the end, but also creates a series of troubles until achieving stability. This challenge gets even bigger when the focus comes specifically to the small satellites, where the limitations are also bigger, such as the power consumption issue due to the lack of space available to allocate batteries. There is need to adopt smaller and more efficient parts and the different ways to interact with the ecosystem; for example, small space debris that is harmless to huge satellites could compromise a small satellite. The aim of this chapter is to briefly introduce the main RTOS concepts, the current state of their use in nanosatellite missions—pointing out their successes and failures, and presenting at the end a summary of directions that can be taken by teams wishing to adopt this type ...