SPACECRAFT KERNEL AND INTERFACE

A spacecraft architecture is defined that distinguishes components and sub-systems based on both functional and physical dependencies. On one side of the interface are kernel components that are both functionally and physically independent of the vehicle configuration and functionally and physically independent of the mission-specific system. On the other side of the interface are components that depend on either the spacecraft configuration or the mission-specific system. The kernel components can be included in a variety of spacecraft, independent of the spacecraft architecture and independent of the spacecraft mission. The kernel includes a communications system for communicating with an earth station, a command and data handling processor, and a power regulation and distribution system. The preferred kernel is extensible by allowing the selection of different capacity components within the kernel, each different capacity component utilizing the same standardized interface for communicating with the vehicle and mission-specific components. By providing a standardize interface and extensible kernel, design changes do not propagate beyond the standardized interface, thereby substantially damping the costly ripple effect typically associated with changes that are introduced late in the design cycle.