On spaceflight instrument adaptive electrical and electronics subsystem functional framework

Near-earth heritage spaceflight missions and contemporary large observatories such as the NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST), future James Web Space Telescope (JWST), or planetary fly-by (Cassini with its 12 instruments) and orbiting deep space observatories like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have carried large electronics subsystems. The Kepler cosmology observatory 95 mega pixels focal plane servicing electronics comprises some 50 electronic boards. The future cosmology mission Wide Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope (WFIRST with 2 instruments) envisions a focal plane with 18 large 4Kx4K sensors totaling 4.8318e+09 bits also serviced by a multitude of electronic boards. On the other hand, a new class of NASA Earth small satellite missions (SmallSat), the Department of Defense Operationally Responsive Space small satellites (ORS) and planetary surface mission instruments require smaller scale electrical and electronics subsystems. These are challenged with unique external space launch technology requirements for ever-smaller mass and volume, constraints on power and communications bandwidth, in addition to the requirements of space extreme environment of temperature variations and cosmic radiation. Within this wide range of space exploration and earth remote-sensing missions there is a need to revisit these external and internal spaceflight instrument science requirements from the point of view of developing the future spaceflight instrument scalable and adaptive electrical and electronics subsystem (IAEES) conceptual framework. We consider these instrument requirements and conceptual functionality framework on the precedent of the two future Decadal missions — the flagship cosmology observatory WFIRST pre-cursor study and proposal DESTINY [1] and the proposed Mars-2020 mission instrument — the Pulsed Neutron Generator and Gamma Ray Spectrometer (PING). Both proposals are now history with the first materializing as the winning WFIRST [2] and the PING destined to fly on some other than Mars-2020 mission. The purpose of this paper is to delineate the IAEES framework in proposal phase broad enough to be scalable and adaptive for future implementation. Representative top-level requirements — each originating in science definition and the instrument's other subsystems and the spacecraft needs constitute the basis of such a framework. A representative IAEES conceptual framework is elaborated on the precedent of the two future mission instruments' proposals and is analyzed as a reference scalable adaptive IAEES and its simulators.