| This research considers the scenario of a deep space remote sensing of asteroids by a satellite cluster. In this scenario, a cluster of satellites is deployed and take positions around the asteroid and probes it for information. Types of anticipated sensing includes imaging, radar, x-ray, infra-red imagery and physical collection of data. The satellite cluster would process information from these sensors, e.g., image processing, in a distributed computing environment. The satellites in the cluster need to communicate in order to support the computational requirements for these kinds of applications.; In this thesis, a C4 Model is developed to capture the computation, communication, command and control requirements of the satellite cluster system deployed based on the scenario. An initial graph abstraction of the satellite cluster is helpful in modeling the system requirements of the scenario as well as the interaction of the four components (C4) of the cluster communication system. The different types of communication that occur due to the computations and command and control (C2) requirements are explored. As a part of the research work, a simulation of the scenario is done. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
