A SYSTEM ENGINEERING STUDY OF THE EDDINGTON ONBOARD SCIENCE DATA PROCESSING CHAIN

摘要

A preliminary software system engineering study of science design drivers and the associated data processing chain onboard the Eddington spacecraft has been undertaken to identify technically feasible approaches to the inherent difficulties. This study has taken as input, results from the scientific evaluation of the mission from the scientific team and consortia, and the instrument reference design. The design of the data processing chain for Eddington will require a careful trade-off between its diverse elements and modes of operation. A wide range of both hardware and software aspects which affect scientific accuracy have been explored, including analog to digital converters; CCD performance and readout; telescope issues; data processing and compression algorithms and telemetry constraints. Some technically feasible solutions involving space qualified processors and memory have been identified and potentially suitable science processing architectures considered. The results of this preliminary study indicate a challenging task ahead with some significant problems remaining. Additionally, owing to the fast track nature of this mission it is believed that some important technical decisions will be needed in the near term.