Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences (Jun 1996)
ON-BOARD COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR KITSAT-1 AND 2
Abstract
KITSAT-1 and 2 are microsatellites weighting 50kg and all the on-board data are processed by the on-board computer system. Hence, these on-board computers require to be highly reliable and be designed with tight power consumption, mass and size constraints. On-board computer(OBC) systems for KITSAT-1 and 2 are also designed with a simple flexible hardware for reliability and software takes more responsibility than hardware. KITSAT-1 and 2 on-board computer system consist of OBC 186 as the primary OBC and OBC80 as its backup. OBC186 runs spacecraft operating system (SCOS) which has real-time multi-tasking capability. Since their launch, OBC186 and OBC80 have been operating successfully until today. In this paper, we describe the development of OBC186 hardware and software and analyze its in-orbit operation performance.