Towards a Qualifiable Space Cloud Approach

Abstract

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Traditional space computing relies on older, space proven hardware and software technologies with significantly lower performance compared to COTS processors. Recently a trend towards the use of Commercial-off the Shelf (COTS) processors in New Space, raised the potential of Space Cloud solutions, in which multiple users share the satellite. These solutions rely on the same software stacks used in conventional cloud deployments, namely Linux, which is not qualifiable for space use. In this paper, we describe the solution developed in the METASAT project, which provides an alternative space cloud infrastructure, fully qualifiable for institutional missions. In addition, we provide more details on the traditional space computing as well as new space and the implementation details of cloud space solutions. We demonstrate their deficiencies on institutional missions where qualification is required, and we describe in more detail the approach followed in the Horizon Europe METASAT project, showing its benefits in terms of space qualification.