Sustainability in space—can you teach old satellites new tricks?

We have all heard that we should always “Scale back, Reuse, Recycle” to avoid wasting the planet, however what about making use of any of the “three R’s” to space?

Researchers at USC Viterbi’s Info Sciences Institute (ISI) are tackling this problem—taking a look at methods to reuse bodily gadgets which might be already in space, specifically, outdated satellites.

Legacy Satellites

There are at the moment a number of thousand satellites orbiting Earth. Many have already accomplished their missions or have outlived their main lifespans—these are “legacy satellites.” And whereas a few of them might have damaged {hardware} and can finally run out of power, go away orbit, and burn out in space, others are bodily in good situation. So, the query turns into: what to do with them?

Alefiya Hussain, ISI Analysis Crew Chief defined, “This undertaking is taking a look at methods to probably reuse satellites for various issues. We’re collaborating with the software firm Tangram Flex to determine how we are able to exchange the software program parts throughout the satellites to re-purpose them.”

She continued, “The method we have taken is to look contained in the satellite and say, this explicit piece of software program did this explicit perform earlier than, can we truly exchange that perform to make it do one thing else as a path to repurposing it?”

So, step one was to find out what the satellite initially did. And to do this, they’d must work in reverse.

Semantic Reverse Engineering (a.okay.a. Figuring Out the Outdated Job)

In computer science, “semantics” refers back to the that means of an instruction, or the method a pc performs when executing that instruction.

The staff would want to reverse engineer a satellite’s software program to know what the unique directions have been.

This system stems from prior ISI initiatives that targeted on capturing the semantics of cyber-physical techniques’ software program, together with a preliminary DARPA AIE (Synthetic Intelligence Exploration) program. These are prior and ongoing efforts in numerous domains, resembling drones and autonomous automobiles.

Luis Garcia, ISI Analysis Lead defined bringing this pondering to satellites, “When you concentrate on analyzing this software program, it is a reverse engineering undertaking. You are making an attempt to know the semantics of those cyber-physical techniques.”

He continued, “Possibly you do not have entry to the supply code. Or perhaps it is outdated software program that you do not have the documentation for, and also you need to have a greater understanding about what this code is definitely doing with respect to this bodily system. Is it controlling how the satellite strikes? Is it a communication problem? We wished to know what the software program was doing.”

Can This Be Automated?

The thought was to automate or semi-automate the semantic reverse engineering.

Machine studying (ML) can be utilized to assist automate many issues; nevertheless ML fashions are educated by giant datasets. There are a restricted variety of precise satellite software program techniques, which meant the staff did not have the huge quantity of information useful for coaching ML fashions.

“We have been envisioning eventualities. However we wished to know if we might automate the method of a reverse engineer or a satellite professional making an attempt to extract the representations of what is going on on with the software program? And that is troublesome when you do not have entry to a number of information,” stated Garcia. How did the staff resolve this? Garcia defined, “Oftentimes we might generate our personal software program datasets that simulated the form of eventualities we have been going after.”

Their methodology labored, and the staff was capable of formalize a semi-automatic semantic reverse engineering pipeline, constructing on years of analysis at ISI with numerous companies together with DARPA and IARPA.

Convey on the New Job

Hussain stated, “After doing semantic reverse engineering, we’re exploring a technique of guided restructuring to repurpose the satellite. In the long term, we wish to surgically exchange software program parts to repurpose the satellite.”

On this effort, Tangram Flex and ISI are partnering to make sure that the U.S. Area Power and business firms can quickly, securely, and confidently improve on-orbit software program parts such that the system capabilities as meant and is cyber safe.

What’s Subsequent?

Hussain stated, “This can be a two-phase effort. We have accomplished Part 1, which was to see whether it is possible to exchange the software components throughout the satellites to repurpose them.”

Tangram Flex is a product-driven software program growth firm with experience in components-based modeling and software program growth, in addition to system modernization, integration, assurance, and autonomy.

Hussain continued, “In collaborating with Tangram Flex, now we have come to some extent the place we consider that sure, it’s possible.” They hope to proceed their work as soon as Part 2 of the undertaking is introduced. In Part 1, the staff decided that changing software program on-orbit is feasible; Part 2 might be about placing that plan into motion.