SpaceWire missions and architectures

SpaceWire is an onboard data-handling network for spacecraft which connects together instruments, mass-memory, processors and telemetry sub-systems. It offers high-speed, low power, simplicity, low cost, and architectural flexibility making it ideal for many space missions. It provides high-speed (2 Mbits/s to 200 Mbits/s), bi-directional, full-duplex, data links wh ich connect the SpaceWire enabled equipment. Networks can be built to suit particular applications using point-to-point data links and routing switches. Application information is sent along a SpaceWire link in discrete packets. Since the SpaceWire standard was published in January 2003, it has been adopted by ESA, NASA, JAXA and RosCosmos for many missions and is being widely used for commercial and other spacecraft. High-profile missions using SpaceWire include: Bepi-Colombo, James Webb Space Telescope, ExoMars, Gaia, Astro-H, GOES-RT, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Swift, PnPSat, and TacSat. This paper, aimed at project managers and system engineers, shows how SpaceWire is being used on current missions, and how the heritage, available technology and capability of SpaceWire make it an ideal data-handling network for many future missions.