GB2591130A

GB2591130A - Space system container

Info

Publication number: GB2591130A
Application number: GB2000721.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Denis Dsilva Rohan
Original assignee: Space Forms Ltd
Current assignee: Space Forms Ltd
Priority date: 2020-01-17
Filing date: 2020-01-17
Publication date: 2021-07-21
Also published as: GB202000721D0; WO2021144141A3; WO2021144141A2

Abstract

A container for housing electronics 111 in space, the container comprising: radiation shielding; thermal control 138; outgassing control 136; and, computer architecture with redundancy. The shielding may comprise an enclosure 118, 120 and a lid 108, 128, which is preferably part transparent (preferably cerium doped). The shielding may have multiple layers, with at least one low-density layer (preferably comprising aluminium or titanium) and/or one high-density layer (preferably comprising tantalum, lead or tungsten). The thermal control may comprise a heat sink, a heat pipe, and a multi-layer insulation blanket and/or it may comprise active thermal control. The redundancy may be both of software and hardware, preferably comprising hardware or software-based voting logic and/or a publisher-subscriber type messaging system. Vibration dampening may be included between the shielding and the electronics, such as honeycomb, porous or elastically deformable material. The space system preferably uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components.

Description

SPACE SYSTEM CONTAINER

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a space system container for housing and protecting electronic devices in space environments. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a container for protecting and enabling the operation of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic devices and systems in space environments.

Background to the Invention and Prior Art

Choosing electronic components to be used in space environments requires a process of selecting specific components which can withstand the extreme environmental conditions of space and space travel. Environmental conditions including high levels of radiation found in space; extreme fluctuations of temperature experienced in space; vibration effects during the launch from earth into space; and operation in a vacuum. Regarding the latter, one practical consideration for electronic components is the risk of outgassing, which is the release of a gas that was dissolved, trapped or absorbed into the material. Components for use in a space environment are selected based on various factors such as processing lot, wafer runs and previous space heritage. Radiation-sensitive components are required to undergo extensive and thorough characterization testing and/or lot acceptance testing; it must be shown by analysis and based on test data, that the components are compatible with the expected radiation levels. This is a very time consuming and costly process. In contrast, microelectronic and electronic devices designed for the general, non-space sector (i.e., components known as "commercial off-the-shelf components", COTS) have a wide variability in space environment tolerances, and so the above testing processes have been the only viable option so far for using such COTS components in space.

Other solutions aimed at facilitating the use of COTS components in space environments rely on using sealed containers and preserving operating environment within them as would be found in a terrestrial surrounding. For example, such sealed containers would maintain an internal pressure similar to that found on the earth. For space use cases, due to the pressure difference between the internal environment within the sealed container and the external space environment, this method is susceptible to pressure equalization over time when the container is deployed in space, due to leakage of the air or inert gases within the container. Over time, the operating environment in relation to the internal pressure within the sealed container becomes compromised, which may also compromise any COTS components within the sealed container. Therefore, such sealed containers may not last long enough in a space environment, nor will the COTS components in the sealed container be able to maintain their desired operating life.

Some solutions have been proposed which deploy shielding to protect, to a limited extent, against radiation and temperature effects.

Summary of the Invention

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a space system container for housing a space system, the container comprising: radiation shielding; thermal control means; outgassing control means; and a computing architecture having multiple redundancy.

The radiation shielding may comprise an enclosure and an enclosure lid.

The enclosure lid may be, at least in part, transparent.

The radiation shielding may comprise multiple layers.

The multiple layers may comprise at least one high-density material or composite and/or at least one low-density material or composite.

The multiple layers may comprise at least one high-density material or composite and at least one low-density material or composite.

The low-density material may form an outer layer of the multiple layers and the high-density material may form an inner layer of the multiple layers.

The high-density material may be chosen from tantalum, tungsten, lead, tantalum alloy, tungsten alloy and lead alloys and the low-density material may be chosen from aluminum, titanium, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy. The transparent material may be chosen from cerium doped glass, cerium oxide doped glass and cerium dioxide doped glass.

The radiation shielding may comprise slots for accommodating interface cables and/or the thermal control means, wherein the slots are not aligned with components of the space system.

The thermal control means may comprises one or more of: a heat sink; a heat pipe; and multi-layer insulation blanket.

The thermal control means may be partially inside and partially outside the radiation shielding. The part of the thermal control means which is inside the radiation shielding may be adjacent to a component of the space system which requires thermal control.

The thermal control means may comprise active thermal control.

The computing architecture may have one or both of software and hardware system redundancy.

The computing architecture may have both software and hardware system redundancy.

The hardware redundancy may comprise replicate hardware systems.

The hardware redundancy may comprise hardware-based voting logic.

The software redundancy may comprise multiple parallel software processes.

The software redundancy may comprise publisher-subscriber type messaging system.

The software redundancy may comprise software-based voting logic.

The outgassing control means may comprise one or more layers of material or composite covering components of the space system.

The space system container may further comprise vibration dampening between the radiation shielding and the space system.

The vibration dampening may comprise one or more of honeycomb, porous or elastically deformable material or composite.

The space system container may further comprise mounts for holding components of the space system.

The mounts may be arranged to hold redundant components in non-parallel arrangements, in orthogonal arrangements and non-orthogonally.

The space system container may further comprise electromagnetic shielding, the electromagnetic shielding being provided by the radiation shielding.

The space system container may comprise commercial off the shelf components.

The present invention relates to improving the ease of using COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) devices in space environments. The present invention also aims to help protect COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) devices and sub-systems made from those COTS devices from the harshness of the space environment. The present invention relates to a container apparatus which comprises multiple shielding enclosures or layers, radiation-resistant materials, innovative structural design, thermal control mechanisms, redundant system software architectures, vibration dampening measures and outgassing reduction measures.

Enabling easy integration and use of COTS components for space-based applications is desirable for the rapid growth of the space ecosystem. Streamlining the integration of COTS components will enable space-based systems to benefit from the latest technological advancements happening in other sectors and facilitate cross-pollination from science and technology point of view.

Description of the Drawings

Some embodiments of apparatus and/or methods in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are now described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1A shows a space system container according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 1B is an exploded view of the container of Figure 1A; Figure 2 shows multiple layers of lids for use with the space system container of Figure 1A; Figure 3 shows a first vibration isolation structure for use with the space system container of Figure 1A: Figure 4 shows a second vibration isolation structure for use with the space system container of Figure 1A; Figure 5 shows a lid for use with the space system container of Figure 1A; Figure 6 shows the space system container of Figure 1A additionally including a slot cover; Figure 7 is a block diagram of a software architecture for use with the space system container of Figure 1A;

Detailed Description

Figure 1A shows a space system container 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 1B shows an exploded view of the space system container 100 of Figure 1A.

The space system container 100 comprises a housing 102 with an opening 104 at one end 106 of the housing 102. The container 100 also comprises a lid 108 arranged to engage with and seal the opening 104 of the housing 102, to thereby define a cavity 110 of the container 100. The housing 102 comprises a flange 112 around the opening 104 of the housing 102. The lid 108 is correspondingly shaped to engage the flange 112 of the housing 102 in order to close the opening 104. The flange 112 and the lid 108 both comprise through holes 114 and 116 respectively, which are arranged to correspond when the lid 108 is placed against the flange 112. Screws and/or bolts (not shown) or other attachment means are passed through the through holes 114 and 114 for closing and securing the lid 108 to the housing 102.

The bulk of the housing 102 shown in Figure 1A generally has a square cross-section with the corners cut-off to produce an octagon, and the flange has a generally square cross-section with its corners cut-off to a lesser degree. However, it should be appreciated that a housing with any other suitable cross-section and flange shape may be used.

Correspondingly, the lid 108 may be any shape that is suitable for placement against and engagement with the flange 112 of the housing 102 and sealing the opening 104 of the housing 102.

The housing 102 is formed of a first housing layer 118 and a second housing layer 120.

The first housing layer 118 is an outer layer of the housing 102 and thereby defines part of an exterior surface 122 of the container 100. The second housing layer 120 is an inner layer of the housing 102 and thereby defines part of an interior walls 124 of the container 100. As shown in Figure 1B, the flange 112 of the housing 102 is integrally formed with the first housing layer 118. As shown in Figures 1A and 1Bwhen viewing the container 100 in the direction of the opening 104, the second housing layer 120 is disposed inside the flange 112.

The lid 108 is formed of a first lid layer 126 and a second lid layer 128. The first lid layer 126 is an outer layer of the lid 108 and thereby defines part of the exterior surface 122 of the container 100 when the lid 108 is engaged with the housing 102. The second lid layer 128 is an inner layer of the lid 108 and thereby defines part of the interior walls 124 of the container 100 when the lid 108 is engaged with the housing 102. As shown in Figures 1A and 1B, the first lid layer 126 is shaped to match the substantially square cross-section of the flange 112 of the housing, so that it may engage with the flange 112 of the housing 102 and cover/secure the opening 104. The second lid layer 128 is shaped to match the generally octagonal cross-section cavity 130 of the second housing layer 120 in order to seal the cavity 130 about the recessed ends 132 of the second housing layer 120.

The layers 118, 120, 126, 128 of the housing 102 and lid 108 are arranged to protect components 111 of a space system disposed within the container 100 from radiation. The layers 118, 120, 126, 128 are made of materials or composite materials of varying densities in order to block various forms of radiation. Low-density material can disperse radiation (in particular neutrons) through elastic scattering, while high-density material can block gamma rays with inelastic scattering.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figures 1A and 1B, the first housing layer 118 is a layer of low-density material or composite material, and the second housing layer is a layer of high-density material or composite material. Furthermore, the first lid layer 126 is a layer of low-density material or composite material, and the second lid layer 128 is a layer of high-density material or composite material. As such, when the lid 108 is engaged with the housing 102, a continuous outer surface or layer of the container 100 defined by the layers 118, 126 disperses radiation, in particular neutrons, through elastic scattering. Furthermore, a continuous inner layer of the container 100 defined by the layers 120, 128 blocks gamma rays with inelastic scattering.

Low-density materials used as part of the housing 102 and lid 108 first layers 118, 126 include one or more of aluminum, titanium, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy, other space suitable low-density material and composite material. High-density materials used as part of the housing 102 and lid 108 second layers 120, 128 include tantalum, tungsten, lead, tantalum alloy, tungsten alloy, lead alloys, other space suitable high-density material or composite material. Advantageously, the low and high density materials used in the housing 102 and lid 108 layers 118, 120, 126, 128 can also shield the contents of the container 100 from electromagnetic interference.

In some embodiments, the container 100 may comprise one or more additional lid and housing layers of different density materials or composites with varying thickness. The additional lid and housing layers may offer varying levels of radiation protection for different space environments. For example, as shown in Figure 2, the container 100 may further comprise additional lid layers 200 in addition to the lid layers 126, 128. Although not shown in Figure 2, the housing 102 may also comprise additional housing layers corresponding to the additional lid layers 200, in order to provide continuous and uniform levels of radiation and electromagnetic interference shielding across the surface of the container 100.

In some embodiments of the container 100, the first 118, 126 and second 120, 128 housing and lid layers may comprise one or more vibration dampening structures in between the layers 118, 126, 120, 128. Figure 3 shows a first example of a vibration dampening structure 300 which may be provided between the first 126 and second 128 lid layers of the container 100. The vibration dampening structure 300 is arranged to dampen, reduce or limit relative movement between the layers 126, 128. In other words, the vibration dampening structure 300 reduces the transmission of vibrations from the first (outer) layer 126 to the second (inner) layer 128, and vice versa.

The vibration dampening structure 300 is a honeycomb-like, porous structure. The vibration dampening structure 300 may be made from resiliently deformable/elastic material or composite. The vibration dampening structure 300 may be made from any other material or composite material suitable for dampening, reducing or limiting the relative movement between the layers 126, 126, such as: elastomers (based on polybutadiene, polychloroprene, polyurethanes, acrylics, nitrile, ethylene-propylenes, silicones and fluorinated polymers etc.), silicone, epoxy, carbon fiber, and other materials/composites. Vibration dampening structure can be any form or combination of vibration isolation system like passive, semi-active or active vibration isolation system. Passive vibration isolation systems include elastomer pads, dense closed-cell foams, negative-stiffness isolators, wire-rope isolators etc. In some embodiments, the vibration dampening structure 300 may be mounted between the lid layers 126, 128 by known mounting methods, such as gluing, bonding, screwing etc. In other embodiments, the vibration dampening structure 300 may be suspended between the layers 126, 128 by pressure between the layers 126, 128.

In some embodiments, the vibration dampening structure 300 may be provided between the layers 126, 128 to fill all available or vacant space between the layers 126, 128. Alternatively, one or more discrete vibration dampening structures may be provided at discrete locations between the layers 126, 128.

The vibration dampening structure 300 described above is shown in Figure 3 for simplicity between the lid layers 126, 128. The skilled person will readily understand that a similar structure can be deployed between the first 118 and second 120 housing layers.

Figure 4 shows an example arrangement of a plurality of discrete vibration dampening structures 400 provided between the first 126 and second 128 lid layers of the container 100. As shown in Figure 4, the discrete vibration dampening structures 400 are arranged at discrete locations between the layers 126, 128, namely at each of the four corners, to provide an alternative vibration dampening arrangement. The vibration dampening arrangement may utilise the combined properties of the discrete vibration dampening structures 400 to provide an overall dampening, reducing or limiting effect of relative movement between the layers 126, 128. The vibration dampening arrangement in Figure 4 may also reduce the transmission of vibrations from the first (outer) layer 126 to the second (inner) layer 128. Therefore, the plurality of discrete vibration dampening structures 400 provide a suitable dampening function when used together in an arrangement, for example as shown in Figure 4. The remaining features of the discrete vibration dampening structures 400 are the same as the vibration dampening structures 300 of Figure 3.

Discrete vibration dampening structures 400 may be provided at additional locations between the lid layers 126, 128. Alternatively or additionally, discrete vibration dampening structures 400 may be provided at any combination of discrete locations in the housing between the layers 126, 128. The size, area and/or thickness of the discrete vibration dampening structures 400 may be suitably adjusted to cover any desired discrete location between the layers 126, 128.

Advantageously, by providing the vibration dampening structures 400 at discrete locations, for example as shown in Figure 4, the amount of vibration dampening material used in the container 100 can be minimized. Consequently, the weight of the container 100 and the container's occupied volume may be minimized whilst still achieving a vibration dampening effect.

Although the vibration dampening structure 300 and 400 is shown in the Figures as a honeycomb-like, porous structure, the vibration dampening structure 300, 400 may be any other suitable form. Furthermore, the vibration dampening structures 300, 400 may be part of a passive, semi-active or active vibration isolation systems.

The discrete vibration dampening structures 400 described above is shown in Figure 4, for simplicity, between the lid layers 126, 128. The skilled person will readily understand that a similar structure can be deployed between the first 118 and second 120 housing layers. Furthermore, as described above, in some embodiments of the present invention, the housing may comprise more than two layers. In these embodiments, one or more vibration dampening structures may be provided between each adjacent pair of housing and lid layers, thereby providing multiple layers of one or more vibration dampening structures 300, 400. The locations of the one or more vibration dampening structures need not be identical between each pair of layers. Rather, each adjacent pair of layers may comprise one or more vibration dampening structures at different locations. In some embodiments, one or more vibration dampening structures may only be provided between selected pairs of adjacent housing or lid layers, depending on other design requirements and/or the complexity of the container 100.

In other embodiments of the container 100, vibration dampening structures may not be used, and the first and second housing and lid layers 118, 12, 126, 128 may be adhered directly together.

In some embodiments of the container 100, the first and second lid layers 126, 128, are partially transparent. Figure 5 shows a partially transparent lid 500 according to some embodiments comprising transparent portions 502. Where the container 100 has multiple lid layers 126, 128, the transparent portions 502 are provided in corresponding cut-out portions of the lid layers 126, 128.

The transparent portions 502 are made of radiation-hardened glass. In particular, the radiation-hardened glass may comprise glass doped with various suitable materials and composite materials to provide radiation-hardening of the glass. Materials used to form the transparent portions 502 may include cerium doped glass, cerium oxide doped glass, cerium dioxide doped glass, related variants (also known in the industry as CMS, CMO, CMG, CMX, CMZ etc.) and other radiation-hardened glass materials/composites.

The transparent portions 502 of the lid 500 support the functioning of various light-based sensors which may be housed inside the container 100. Therefore, although Figure 5 shows two transparent portions 502 which are circular, the lid 500 may comprise any one or more transparent portions of any size and shape, as long as the transparent portion(s) 502 provide a direct line of sight to the relevant light-based sensor(s) inside the container 100. As such, the skilled person will appreciate that the exact arrangement of the transparent portions 502 in the lid 500 may be a design choice.

In some embodiments, the lid layers 126, 128 may be entirely transparent. In these embodiments, the lid layers 126, 128 may be formed of the radiation-hardened glass. The glass lid formed of glass layers may be directly affixed to the flange 112 of the housing 102 as described above and/or using an epoxy based glue to adhere the glass lid to the flange 112 of the housing 102. In other embodiments, the lid 108 and its layers 126, 128 may be completely opaque.

Returning to Figures 1A and 1B, the container 100 further comprises a plurality of mounting elements 134 arranged on the inner wall 124 of the housing 102. The mounting elements 134 are for holding and securing the electronic devices or components 111 that are to be disposed in the container 100 and which form the space system. For example, the mounting elements 134 are arranged to hold and secure one or more commercial offthe-shelf electronic devices or components 111. The mounting elements 134 can be made using the same material or composite material as the inner second housing layer 120. Alternatively, the mounting elements 134 may be made of the same material as the outer first housing layer 118, or of any other suitable material or composite material.

The mounting elements 134 are arranged in the container 100 to allow the electronic components 111 to be placed and held in the container 100 in various arrangements and alignments as desired. For example, as the space system within the container 100 may comprise multiple, duplicate electronic components 111 (in order to provide redundancy), the duplicate electronic components 111 (mounted on PCBs) may be mounted in different planes, whether parallel, orthogonal or otherwise. A reason for this is that if the container, while in space, is subjected to an extreme radiation event from a particular direction one of the duplicate redundant PCBs will be exposed to that event to a lesser degree than another of the duplicate redundant PCBs. The skilled person will appreciate that the precise number and arrangement of mounting elements may depend on the number of devices to be secured in the container 100, and the dimensions of the container 100 and devices.

The container 100 of Figure 1 further comprises one or more protective coatings 136 covering the components 111 of the space system. The protective coatings 136 are arranged to cover the electronic devices to protect any potentially sensitive electronic circuitry of the devices or components 111. In particular, the protective coatings 136 may protect sensitive electronic circuitry from outgassing, and provide an element of temperature insulation to the devices or components 111. The protective coatings 136 are formed of a material or composite material having a low-outgassing property across a large temperature range, so that it may retain its form and structure for many years.

Materials or composite materials used for the protective coatings 136 may include lowoutgassing epoxy, silicone and other adhesives. Some examples of these include industry known materials like EP21TDCS-LO, UV1OTKL0-2, Supreme 10AOHT-LO, EP121CL, EP125, EP21TDC-2L0, FLM36-LO, EP21TDCHT-LO etc. Materials/composites meeting the NASA ASTM E595 requirements would be preferable or any other suitable material. For example, when an electronic component is encased in low-outgassing epoxy this will control and ideally prevent outgassing of the electronic component.

The container 100 comprises a thermal control mechanism 138 for transferring heat from the interior volume of the container 100 to the container's external environment. Heat may be generated in the container 100 by the devices and components 111. The thermal control mechanism 138 comprises a pair of heat sinks 138 arranged, with each of them having one part on the external surface of the housing and another part within the housing 102. The thermal control mechanism 138 may also comprise of heat pipes (not shown). The heat sinks and/or heat pipes extend from the inner cavity 110 of the housing 102 to the exterior of the housing 102 and are used to transfer heat generated by the space system's components 111 within the container 100 to the external environment. Part of the heat sinks and/or heat pipes 138 resides inside the housing 102 proximal to the electronic devices and part of the heat sink and/or heat pipe structure 138 resides outside the housing adjacent the external surface 122 of the housing 102.

The housing 102 of the container 100 of Figure 1 comprises a plurality of slots 140 to enable the heat sinks and/or heat pipes 138 to enter into the container 100. The slots provide openings for interface wires, links or joints to aspects of thermal control system 138 outside the housing 102 and/or connections to other external parts. In a preferred embodiment the slots are located in the wall 122 of the housing 102 in a manner such that they are not aligned with the electronic devices within the housing 102 so that the electronic devices within the container will not be exposed to any radiation incident on the container 100 and passing through the slots 140. The slots are arranged to be as narrow and short as possible to minimize radiation entering the inner cavity of the container 100 and may, therefore, be an aperture of any shape. Such an arrangement of the slots 140 and the mounting elements 134 ensures that the electronic devices are protected from radiation incident on and entering the container via the slots 140.

With reference to Figure 6, in some embodiments the container 100 may comprise one or more shield elements 600 positioned on the exterior surface 122 of the housing 102 to limit the amount of radiation entering into the cavity 110 of the container 100 through the slots 140. In Figure 6 there are a pair of shield elements 600. Each shield element 600 is positioned aligned with a slot 140 on a side of the container 100 to limit the radiation entering the cavity 110 of the container 100.

In some embodiments, portions of the heat sinks and/or heat pipes 138 adjacent to the devices are also covered with the protective coating 136. In other embodiments of the invention, portions of the heat sinks and/or heat pipes 138 adjacent to the electronic devices are not covered with the protective coating 136.

In some embodiments of the invention multi-layer insulation (MU) blankets may be placed on the exterior surface of the enclosure 100 to provide temperature insulation as part of the temperature control mechanism, to reduce the effect of external temperature variances when the container 100 is in space.

In some embodiments of the invention, active thermal control mechanisms may be used in the thermal control mechanism 138. Elements of the thermal control mechanism 138 may also have screw holes to double up as attachment, fixing and support structures.

Figure 7 shows a radiation-resistant software architecture (RRSA) 700 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The RRSA 700 provides computing architecture having multiple redundancy and is used in the container 100 to provide an extra level of resilience and robustness. In particular, the RRSA 700 has both software and hardware system redundancy. The RRSA 700 is designed to offer some protection from single event effects (SEE). The architecture 700 allows the overall system to stay operational in the event of the failure of some of its hardware components 111.

The hardware redundancy comprises replicate hardware systems. In particular, the RSSA 700 has three replicate nodes, Node A 701, Node B 702 and Node C 703. These three nodes 701, 702, 703 are disposed in different places within the container 100 and in different orientations so that they will differently affected by a single event.

The software redundancy comprises multiple parallel software processes. For example, three processes are shown as running in Node A 701, namely Process Al 711, Process A2 712 and Process A3 713. Similarly, three processes are shown as running in Node B 702, namely Process B1 721, Process B2 722 and Process B3 723; and three processes are shown as running in Node C 703, namely Process Cl 731, Process C2 732 and Process C3 733. In this example, Processes Al 711, B1 721 and Cl 731 are identical; Processes A2 712, B2 722 and C2 732 are identical; and Processes A3 713, B3 723 and C3 733 are identical.

The RRSA of Figure 7 comprises a publisher-subscriber type messaging system hosted across multiple devices 701, 702, 703 comprised in the container 100 to form a distributed messaging platform 705. The publisher-subscriber messaging system comprises a software system wherein a publisher process (on a device) sends a message to a message data stream (also known as a topic). All subscriber processes (across one or more devices 701, 702, 703) subscribed to that particular message data stream will receive the message. Usually, there are multiple publishers, subscribers and message data streams within a messaging architecture. This messaging system allows reliable inter-device 701, 702, 703 communication to go with the redundant hardware.

One of the multiple devices 701, 702, 703 is promoted to be the leader device. The leader device communicates with other devices 701, 702, 703 over the messaging system 705 for validating key computations and processing. Within each device 701, 702, 703 the respective running processes can send or receive messages via process topic/message data stream 707 and polling topic/message data stream 708. Hardware or software-based voting logic integrated with the messaging architecture is used for decision making. This system also ensures any recurrent malfunctioning devices are identified and removed from the list of the voting devices.

Various algorithms running on COTS-based computing hardware for spacecraft tasks, inspection and repair tasks, assembly and construction tasks are designed to work in a distributed manner across the messaging system.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A space system container for housing a space system, the container comprising: radiation shielding; thermal control means; outgassing control means; and a computing architecture having multiple redundancy.
2. A space system container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiation shielding comprises an enclosure and an enclosure lid.
3. A space system container as claimed in claim 2, wherein the enclosure lid is, at least in part, transparent.
4. A space system container as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the radiation shielding comprises multiple layers.
5. A space system container as claimed in claim 4, wherein the multiple layers comprise at least one high-density material or composite and/or at least one low-density material or composite.
6. A space system container as claimed in claim 4, wherein the multiple layers comprise at least one high-density material or composite and at least one low-density material or composite.
7. A space system container as claimed in claim 5 or 6, wherein the low-density material forms an outer layer of the multiple layers.
8. A space system container as claimed in claim 5, 6 or 7, wherein the high-density material forms an inner layer of the multiple layers.
9. A space system container as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the high-density material is chosen from tantalum, tungsten, lead, tantalum alloy, tungsten alloy and lead alloys.
10. A space system container as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the low-density material is chosen from aluminum, titanium, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy.
11. A space system container as claimed in claim 3, wherein the transparent material is chosen from cerium doped glass, cerium oxide doped glass and cerium dioxide doped glass.
12. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the radiation shielding comprises slots for accommodating interface cables and/or the thermal control means.
13. A space system container as claimed in claim 12, wherein the slots are not aligned with components of the space system.
14. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the thermal control means comprises one or more of: a heat sink; a heat pipe; and multi-layer insulation blanket.
15. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the thermal control means is partially inside and partially outside the radiation shielding.
16. A space system container as claimed in claim 16, wherein the part of the thermal control means which is inside the radiation shielding is adjacent to a component of the space system which requires thermal control.
17. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the thermal control means comprises active thermal control.
18. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the computing architecture has one or both of software and hardware system redundancy.
19. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the computing architecture has both software and hardware system redundancy.
20. A space system container as claimed in claim 18 or 19, wherein the hardware redundancy comprises replicate hardware systems.
21. A space system container as claimed in claim 18, 19 or 20, wherein the hardware redundancy comprises hardware-based voting logic.
22. A space system container as claimed in any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the software redundancy comprises multiple parallel software processes.
23. A space system container as claimed in any one of claims 18 to 22, wherein the software redundancy comprises publisher-subscriber type messaging system.
24. A space system container as claimed in any one of claims 18 to 23, wherein the software redundancy comprises software-based voting logic.
25. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the outgassing control means comprises one or more layers of material or composite covering components of the space system.
26. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising vibration dampening between the radiation shielding and the space system.
27. A space system container as claimed in claim 26, wherein the vibration dampening comprises one or more of honeycomb, porous or elastically deformable material or 20 composite.
28. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising mounts for holding components of the space system.
29. A space system container as claimed in claim 28, wherein the mounts are arranged to hold redundant components in non-parallel arrangements.
30. A space system container as claimed in claim 28, wherein the mounts are arranged to hold redundant components in orthogonal arrangements.
31. A space system container as claimed in claim 28, wherein the mounts are arranged to hold redundant components inclined to one another non-orthogonally.
32. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising electromagnetic shielding.
33. A space system container as claimed in claim 32, wherein the electromagnetic shielding is provided by the radiation shielding.
34. A space system container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the space system comprises commercial off the shelf components.