Fault management on communications satellites

There is a military communications (MILCOM) satellite system which is designed to provide communications for military users. To meet this mission, a key function to be performed is autonomous fault management of the MILCOM system which includes a constellation of satellites and a collection of dedicated ground control stations. The impact of the MILCOM fault management system to the space, user, and ground support segments poses numerous interesting challenges. This paper reviews challenges in fault management design constraints and satellite system considerations. The development of the MILCOM fault management system has led to fundamental insights into the architectural characteristics needed in a system to support fault management. The design experience of fault management on the satellite bus is compared to activity on two payloads. The communications payloads present substantially different design problems from that of the bus.