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Mar 22, 2021

ESA’s OPS-SAT

OPS-SAT is a CubeSat (small form factor satellite based upon 10CM cube-shaped modules) launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) late in 2019. Its mission: demonstrate improvements in mission control capabilities based on a cheaper, more capable (in terms of computing power) satellite platform. Even though only a 3U CubeSat measuring (exclusive of solar panels) only 96 mm × 96 mm × 290 mm (3.8 in × 3.8 in × 11.4 in) and weighing in at only 7 kg (15.4 lbs.), OPS-SAT delivers impressive capabilities: its experimental computer is 10X more powerful than any current ESA spacecraft.


Such computational power in such a tiny package enables a lot of innovation. Space agencies have traditionally been relatively conservative when it comes to the pace of innovation, This is understandable: space vehicles and missions are expensive to plan and deploy. During the Space Shuttle era, the average NASA mission cost was $450M. This has rapidly decreased over the last 13 years. Cost per pound to put something into orbit was $10K then. Today, SpaceX is advertising $2.5K per pound.


As can be seen from the image at the left, OPS-SAT is really small, making it feasible to share the cost of boosting a satellite into space with many other users, substantially reducing mission costs. More specifically, tiny satellites like OPS-SAT represent much less financial risk. Larger ESA satellites can cost up to €60M to put in orbit. OPS-SAT cost only €1.4M.


Beyond lower financial risk, OPS-SAT is so robust, it can literally be rebooted if necessary to recover from an error. It’s actually a satellite within a satellite. Control can be swapped between the two and they monitor each other. This degree of robustness allows real time experimentation on critical control functions during flight.


7 years in development, it’s the first nanosatellite to be directly owned by ESA and controlled by ESA/ESOC. Its high-powered 800 MHz processor allows “normal” software (Linux, JAVA, and Python) to control the satellite. Firmware can also be upgraded during flight.

OPS-SAT’s uplink is 4 xs higher than any other ESA spacecraft. Uplinks of up to 50 mb/sec are possible on RF links. It has a laser receiver, which should be capable of even higher uplink and downlink speeds.


It’s also designed to be open in order to encourage innovation. Experiment uploads were encouraged for corporations, academic institutions and even individuals. More information about registering to become a part of the OPS-SAT community and for instructions about how to submit software for approved registration is available at: https://opssat1.esoc.esa.int/. Further information about testing, uploading and running software are also available there. Experimentation on OPS-SAT is available at no cost until November, 2021.


The OPS-SAT program is innovative in both its approach to satellite hardware AND it’s organization to encourage innovation by many stakeholders. As of mid-December, 2020, 153 experiments had been registered with the OPS-SAT community.

We will continue looking into the OPS-SAT program by looking at one of its first successful experiments involving DTN. We’ll follow that with a profile of the company behind that experiment: D3TN. More coming soon…


Some short, introductory YouTube videos:

Mar 8, 2021

IPNSIG Newsletter March, 2021

Among the key advantages that led to the emergence of the TCP/IP protocol suite as the foundation of the Internet architecture was publication of the TCP/IP specifications as fully open standards, which could be implemented by anybody. Proprietary networking architectures such as IBM’s Systems Network Architecture (SNA), Digital Equipment’s DECnet, and the Xerox Network Systems (XNS) framework lent themselves less easily to widespread adoption.


In the Interplanetary Networking community we are trying hard to replicate that success by establishing universally available open Delay-Tolerant Networking standards. We hope to encourage a wide range of interoperable protocol implementations that can address all the use cases that anyone can think of.


So far, progress is encouraging. Among the implementations of Bundle Protocol that we know of are:


  • DTN2, the original reference implementation, developed largely by Mike Demmer at UC Berkeley.

  • DTN2’s lineal descendant DTNME, currently in use for International Space Station (ISS) operations and maintained by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

  • ION, likewise in use for ISS operations, developed and maintained mainly at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

  • cFS BPlib, soon to fly on the PACE mission, developed and maintained at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

  • An implementation developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).

  • IBR-DTN, developed at Technische Universität Braunschweig.

  • uPCN, developed by D3TN GmbH, Dresden.

  • HDTN, a high-speed implementation developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

  • PyDTN, written in Python X-Works.

  • Experimental implementations written in Java, Go, and Rust.


More important than the number and variety of implementations, though, is the demonstrated interoperability of those implementations. Interoperation venues have ranged from the informal, as in the uPCN/PyDTN interoperability testing performed at the IETF 101 Hackathon, to the operational, as in the ION/DTNME-based architecture supporting ISS and the ION/BPlib framework supporting PACE.


In January an international team executed an especially gratifying testbed demonstration, in preparation for a planned interoperation experiment that will include Lunar Ice Cube mission communications. The testbed included:

  • One DTN node running cFS BPlib, emulating the Lunar Ice Cube spacecraft.

  • One DTN node running ION, emulating the Lunar Ice Cube mission operations center.

  • One DTN node running ESA’s implementation of BP, emulating an ESA ground station, which forwarded bundles between the other two nodes.


The cFS BPlib code base does not include an implementation of Licklider Transmission Protocol, instead relying on Aggregate Custody Signaling (ACS) for reliability in bundle transmission. However, the ESA BP implementation does not include an implementation of ACS; instead, the ION node closes the custody transfer loop with the emulated spacecraft, with the ESA node forwarding bundles from the ION node including the aggregate custody signals.


This may be the first demonstration of sustainable Solar System Internet architecture, relying on the interoperability of different BP implementations developed by different national space agencies. We think it won’t be the last.

Mar 3, 2021

Executive Summary of the IPNSIG Strategy Workshop


The IPNSIG Strategy Working Group (SWG) carried out a workshop on “How can we build a sustainable IPN?” on Feb. 22nd.


For the first time in history, high level strategic principles and the strategic approaches to guide the deployment of a Solar System Internet (SSI) driven by the Inter-Planetary Networking technology has been discussed with 85 participants from 10 nations across the globe.


Thanks to every IPNSIG community member who attended, and with your input, we are now halfway on our road to deliver a Strategy Report on how to deliver an SSI.



At the workshop, the SWG presented their vision on how the SSI architecture or its operation model could change over time in the 30 to 100 years and shared their views on the key principles that would support the evolution of it.


The SWG introduced the key principles that include Collaboration, Global Standards, Stability, Democracy, Affordability, Expandability and Security.


As the construct of SSI is a human endeavor, the SWG presented their strategic approaches on the concept of vision sharing, co-creation, risk sharing and pooling & sharing to be put in place by the public and the private sectors.


Excellent views were shared by the participants:

  • Global standards are the enablers to cultivate business cases and eventually an ecosystem by the commercial sector.

  • Entities who provides funds to build SSI may have control over the Global standards.

  • Cultivating public interest is significant and will be a strong thrust to realize our endeavors in SSI.


IPNSIG will be planning for more workshops in the future.

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