SpaceWire equipment design, integration and test

Space Wire is a widely used spacecraft onboard data-handling network technology adopted by ESA, NASA, JAXA and the international space industry for many missions including GAIA, ExoMars rover, BepiColombo, James Webb Space Telescope, GOES-R, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Astro-H. SpaceWire connects together instruments, mass-memory, processors, downlink telemetry, and other on-board sub-systems. SpaceWire provides high-speed (2 Mbits/s to 200 Mbits/s), bi-directional, foil-duplex data-links, which connect together SpaceWire enabled equipment. Data-handling networks can be built to suit particular applications using point-to-point data-links and routing switches. This paper introduces SpaceWire and considers the way in which SpaceWire components, units and networks are developed, tested and integrated in space missions. It explores the essential analysis, test and development equipment needed at each stage of spacecraft development to enable efficient and effective use of Space Wire.