Development and Evaluation of a CCSDS-Based Communication System on Microsatellite ALE-1

The microsatellite ALE-1 has been jointly developed by ALE Co., Ltd. and the Space Robotics Laboratory (SRL) of Tohoku University in order to demonstrate a novel artificial meteor-generating payload. This mission necessitated the adaptation of SRL's flight heritage microsatellite communications system architecture to follow the Recommended Standards of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). This paper describes and evaluates the new ALE-1 communications system, which implements the CCSDS protocols while maintaining the previous functionality and making minimal modifications to the legacy design. A simplified CCSDS implementation was developed around the integration of a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) CCSDS controller into the existing system. The performance of this adapted and simplified implementation is reduced as the maximum real-time data rate is limited and significant overhead is introduced. However, the changes to the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of the system are small, thereby achieving the design objective of making minimal system modifications. This system was tested thoroughly on ground and is currently operating on orbit, facilitating critical operations for the ALE-1 mission and demonstrating the feasibility of CCSDS-compliance on microsatellites and the adoption of the CCSDS standards on legacy platforms.