| Most communication buses currently used in the space industry are mature technologies with up to 30 years of service. However, as the demand for smaller and more economical space systems increases, the need for compact, complex, and efficient spacecraft is also on the rise. This suggests the requirement for a new generation of buses, designed specifically for current and future spacecraft. This work has aimed to provide such a solution based on the principles of a sustaining technology. In other words, we have reduced the risk associated with this new design, by deriving the new bus architecture based on already mature ground based technologies. A wireless communication bus would allow a spacecraft engineer to reduce volume, mass and complexity, while maintaining the integrity of the space system design. Among the wireless buses considered, Bluetooth is capable of complying with many of the space industry requirements and is found to be an excellent candidate for the underlying architecture of this bus. Throughout this work the architecture for a newly developed spacecraft bus based on the principles of bluetooth is provided. This architecture is then validated by means of simulation of various configurations. |
