Reducing the Cost of Small Satellite Ground System Development Using XTCE

Small satellite ground systems development has traditionally been an area in which limiting cost is a paramount concern. Within the limited funding available for a typical small satellite mission, priority must naturally be given to the development of the spacecraft and instruments, with ground system development and operation being secondary. At the same time, individual small satellite operators are often forced to develop new ground systems from scratch; while the operators of large satellites are able to make use of an extensive portfolio of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or government off-the-shelf (GOTS) ground system components to reduce development costs, such components are too complex and too costly for most small satellite missions. This paper proposes an approach to reducing the cost of small satellite ground systems through the use of the XML Telemetric and Command Exchange (XTCE). XTCE is a set of recommendations and standards developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) and the Consultative Committee on Space Data Systems (CCSDS) which define an XML information model for describing the format, encoding, and data types of telemetry and command data for a system, subsystem or instrument on a satellite. The paper describes a generic implementation of a small satellite ground network and mission operations center using XTCE; it also offers an analysis of the tradeoffs involved in such an implementation. The analysis encompasses both technical and financial factors, with particular attention to the compatibility of the resulting ground system with technologies, components, and networks already used by or available to the satellite operator; the cost of initial ground system implementation, modification during spacecraft development, and operational and sustainment costs over the lifetime of the mission; and ground system reusability and interoperability for mission cross support