Blockchain Applied in the Update the Firmware of Educational Nanosatellites
Published in 3rd IAA Latin American Symposium on Small Satellites (IAA-LA 2022), 2022
Abstract: Space has increasingly attracted the attention of governments, large industries, and universities. One of the most popular strategies in recent years has been the adop- tion of nanosatellites to fulfill different missions, which can work alone or in constellations. Universities appear in the spotlight among the nanosatellite launch agents, with more than 600 launches until 2022.
Updating the firmware of satellites or nanosatellites in orbit is always challenging, as the device needs to be visible to ground sta- tions to receive data packets at an average of 10 minutes per pass. The firmware image is shredded and shipped until all the firmware can be mounted and the system completes the update. In this process, the data packet can be corrupted by natural phenomena or intentionally by intruders, and a new request will have to be redone. In general, universities have low financial resources to access Earth Stations frequently, and their projects are only protected if they can correct a firmware defect in the or- biting nanosatellite.
This work presents a proposal to decentralize the use of ground stations to update the firmware of university nanosatellites. We proposed a consortium between universities and institutions to create a decentralized structure for providing firmware updates. For this, we propose using Blockchain technology and the concept of smart contracts to govern the process and diffusion of the new firmware throughout the consortium’s network of satellites. We use the Hyperledger Besu Blockchain to create an Ethereum client and allow CubeSats to access the servers to make firmware update requests. In practice, the nanosatellite does not request only to its home stations but to any station on the network and relies on encrypted transactions to bring security to the procedure. The result is a faster propagation speed of firmware for each CubeSat. Our proposal still involves the creation of a token called GS-BC with a value of 10 percent of ETH to govern the monetization of the service. The result shows the feasibility for universities and small and medium-sized companies to access the service without incurring huge expenses. The system also rewards institutions with earth stations, generating a new incoming source.
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