Blockchain-Enabled Redundant Fractionated Spacecraft System

Abstract

Services and applications provided by satellites are continuously improving in terms of quality and diversity, as well as, their complexity. Resilience of traditional monolithic spacecraft is achieved mainly through redundancy, which exponentially increases the complexity of their production, and therefore, their cost. One solution would be to use fragmented spacecraft systems. Redundancy is achieved by nature with local complexity. Furthermore, scalability of such a system is facilitated. However, data transfer and physical communication link between the “fragments” must be addressed. The main challenge of these systems is the management of the network of satellites. Traditional centralised networks, managed by a single entity, have been proven not to be secure, as they generate a common point of failure, susceptible to attacks. Traditional distributed networks, managed by multiple entities, require honest participants and trust between entities, restricting collaborative mission applications. In the present article, a design for a blockchain-enabled swarm fractionated system managed by multiple trustless entities is proposed. The system is composed of functionally different nano-satellites which perform tasks from different subsystems in order to replicate the functionalities of a monolithic spacecraft. The blockchain nodes are deployed in the satellites and allow sharing of sensor data between the network. A consensus protocol ensures the validity of the shared data. The proposed system has been implemented and evaluated on a local blockchain composed of four Ethereum nodes. We believe that the proposed application opens the way to new collaborative missions between entirely trustless parties, ensuring transparency and cooperation within the system.