Microwave Remote Sensing Based On

Small Satellite (MR3S)

Caballero A., Martinez D., Santos G., Pintos I., Henn S., Sosa V., Vega B., Gomez C., Aguirre D., Gomez E.,
Vargas J.
CONAE-UFS, UTN

Introduction Reliability Model

Satellites employ rare and expensive radiant
Model Reliability Failure Additional
tolerant, radiation hardened or at least military R∞
Qn Pn
qualified parts for computational and other sub- Serial e − 0
λi dt
λ = i=1 λi MTBF = P1
i=1 λi
systems to ensure reliability in the harsh envi-
−λ t λt −2 λ t (∗)
ronment of space. Qn λ(e +e )−2 λ e
Parallel R(t) = 1 − i=1 [1 − Ri (t)] λ(t) = 2 e−λ t −e−2 λ t
R(t) = 1 − (1 − eλ t )n (∗)
Another distinguishing feature of the space
architectures is the ad-hoc construction of MMR(∗∗) R(t) = RM (3 e−2λ t − 2 e−3 λ t )
electronic components, computers, controllers,
power distribution unities, deployment systems, Table 1: (∗) for two identical units in parallel, (∗∗) Multiple Modular Redundancy for three components which at
etc. Only few elements are inherited from pre- least two should be operative.
vious missions. Fault tolerance structure can be divided into cold-backup and hot-backup methods.

Objective Configuration Description Reliability

A new paradigm is proposed based on com- Cold Backup Only one equipment is powered on R(t) = 2 e−λ t − e−2 λ t
mercial parts and components which are incor- 2


Hot backup All units are powered on R(t) = 2 Ri (t) − Ri (t) Rc (t)
porated in an architecture to reach the expected
identical reliability figures than a satellite using Table 2: Hot and Cold Backup.
space qualified design. The small satellite mar-
ket is offering a lot of space proven Commercial
Off The Shelf (COTS) equipment and parts that Proposed Design
are attractive (from the quality, cost and perfor-
mance point of view) to be used on larger satel-
lites, It is necessary to take note that the current
expected lifetime for CUBESAT is less than two
years and the required lifetime for other satel-
lites are around 60 months.

Reliability Principles
Reliability is the ability of a system to function
under stated time and conditions. Assuming
that the system is normally operative at t0 . The
conditional probability that the system remains
in the same state in the period [t0 , t].
Because R(t) is the probability of the system Fig. 2: Proposed general configuration, based on COTS components.
remains in continuous operation in the time
range, [t0 , t], the system’s Mean Time To Fail-
ure (MTTF) and the Mean Time Between Fail- Characteristics MR3S
ure (MTBF) are closely related by,
Z ∞ Z ∞ Based on the reliability analysis applied on the The selected payload is a bi-static radar com-
MTTF = − t dR(t) = R(t) dt . COTS products of the CUBESAT market the posed by two GPS receivers sharing the same
0 0 design includes three components in most of time base. The GPS signal reaches the GPS
the electronics parts to assure the lifetime of 5 antenna on the satellite Zenith and the scat-
If the system lifetime follows an exponential years which is the common requirements. ter on the surface on the GPS antenna on the
distribution, that is, f (t) is a constant λ, i.e
Only the voting electronics and the actuators satellite Nadir. The correlation between then al-
R(t) = e−λ t . Then
Z ∞ need to be selected from COTS components low to analyze data on the scattering area.
−λ t 1 out of the CUBESAT possibilities.
MTTF = e dt =
0 λ

Availability A(t) is the proportion of time during Part Quantity Quality Comments
which the system is available within [t0 , t]. It can
be calculated using, A(t) = MTTF/MTBF PC/Plat. 3 CSAT CC
PC/Payl. 3 CSAT CC
Voting 3 Ad Hoc 2oo3
Configurations Tx 3 CSAT CC
The three configurations are used to describe Rx 3 CSAT HC
RW+TR 4+3 NoCSAT HC. Fig. 3: General Concept for GPS reflectometry .
the reliability model.
TAM+ST 3+3 CSAT HC.
X-band 3 CSAT CC
Antennas 2+2 CSAT HC. Conclusion
I Based on reliability analysis is possible to
Table 3: CSAT: Cubesat technology, NoCSAT: built a satellite based on COTS components
COTS but not Cubesat, CC: Cold Configuration, HC: mainly coming from the CUBESAT market.
Hot Configuration. I The penalty of mass increasing because the
addition of extra equipment is compensate
The GPS receivers are not included in the list, with cost, time and simplicity reduction.
because the payload is based that equipment. I The SAR based on GPS is very effective
from the resources needed to be imple-
mented, specially in power and mass.

Fig. 1: Serial, Parallel and MMR configurations.