Reliability analysis for communication subsystems in a vehicular spacecraft

In this paper the reliability of communication systems in a vehicular spacecraft, including telemetry, telecommand and also tracking subsystems has been examined based on the experimental results. After short reviewing the main blocks of those subsystems and also the probable risks of a space mission, fault tree analysis of the subsystems is presented. The reliability of a subsystem, without any redundancy, has been estimated and leads to maximum 94%. However, the reliability decreases to around 84% in the system level. The results show that, contrary to the expectation, processors and high price parts are not always the most vulnerable parts. In some cases, some simple and low price blocks have more probability of being damaged.Redundancy is an important subject in space missions and is cost effective, with respect to the mass budget, when uses in ground segments. These theoretical results were verified using previous space missions in Aerospace Research Institute.

کلیدواژه ها:

Reliability Estimation ، Telecommunications Systems ، Space Systems ، Retrofit