Flexible platform based micro-satellite design method

This article proposes a flexible platform based satellite design methodology to achieve the aim of “Faster, Better and Cheaper” in a micro-satellite development process. The micro-satellite platform is divided into components-based software modules and hardware modules that comprise reconfigurable module, universal module and custom-built system in the proposed methodology. As a result, the micro-satellite platform possesses the flexible ability of rapid assembly/replacing according to diverse mission requirements. Application of hardware Plug and Play technology enables the universal module to rapidly connect to the satellite platform. Based on the software bus, the components-based software technique enhances the reuse percentage of the on-board software code, and improves the efficiency of the on-board software R&D. The single-axis air-bearing test bed is constructed based on proposed micro-satellite flexible platform design method using RS232 flywheel and RS422 fiber optic gyro (FOG), which illustrates the efficiency of the developed flexible design methodology.