The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected a team led by space software experts SciSys to undertake a proof-of-concept investigation into an innovative technique for securely partitioning on-board satellite software.
Future evolutions of earth observation, telecom, and navigation missions are likely to be “dual-use”, providing services to commercial, scientific, civilian security, and defence communities simultaneously from a single satellite. For this to happen, it is necessary to safely separate the on-board computer system into multiple logical partitions in a secure manner. This is termed “secure partitioning” and, if successful, would enable competing commercial entities to share a single spacecraft by providing confidentiality guarantees for sensor data, intellectual property such as program codes for space-reprogrammable devices, and operational procedures inside a partition.
To meet this challenge, ESA has awarded a proof-of-concept project to a team lead by SciSys. The purpose of the “Securely Partitioning Spacecraft Computing Resources” project will be to analyze, adapt, and implement partitioning techniques that focus on security and safety issues in spacecraft on-board software. In particular this will include a review of separation microkernels currently available or under development in terrestrial applications but which are suitable for use in future ESA programs. One selected partitioning solution — PikeOS — is already a proven paravirtualization real-time operating system based on a separation microkernel architecture. The PikeOS virtualization concept satisfies a new generation of safety-critical requirements and will allow multiple “personalities” to run concurrently on a single CPU.. As a part of the project, PikeOS will be customised to meet the identified security and safety requirements. This will prove the concept in a realistic environment and result in PikeOS being ported to the LEON3 platform, integrated and tested with the Virtual Spacecraft Reference Facility in the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. In addition to SciSys the team includes leading experts in space and non-space partitioning technologies. These include SYSGO; the University of York, and EADS Astrium.
