Space Systems Vulnerability: A Protocol of Analysis and Evaluation

Abstract

Beginning mid-2007, Onera, the French Aerospace Lab, started a working group on how to protect satellites. A new point of view was introduced with the protection of the mission, not the satellite system in itself, and considering a new design principle in space systems: the 3R concept (Redundancy, Reactivity, Reconfiguration). This concept was first introduced to the AIAA community in 2009, with the publication “Satellite Protection : A System’s Approach Through The 3R Concept”, supported by an Onera program constituted of two consecutive projects : first, a one-year project (V2S) on vulnerability of space systems, characterizing and quantifying such vulnerability, and, second, a 3-year research project, on Survivability of Space Systems (PRF 3S). The V2S project, now ended, has allowed the development and maturation of a vulnerability index and the associated assessment protocol. The PRF 3S, started in 2010, is focusing on the application and extension of this protocol on a variety of space systems, through a generic description of the system’s physical architecture as well as its mission. This will allow the comparison of monolithic satellites with constellations and “3R” space systems. Knowing we assess the mission’s vulnerability, a new frame of reference is introduced: the space system’s lifetime. This timeframe allows us to include many factors of risks in our vulnerability assessment and thus include short and long-lived events that can affect the space systems, such as very small space debris impacts versus larger impacts. This publication thus presents the outcome of the V2S project: our Vulnerability Index and Assessment (VIA) protocol, the hypotheses and the tools required for the evaluation, and a first assessment on a scenario involving a LEO space system, with an Earth observation mission, in different space debris environments.