全球智库信息集成服务系统

A Centralized Database Poses Great Advantages

• A centralized and standardized satellite anomaly database would aid in anomaly investigations, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. It could also contribute to the scientific understanding of real-world impacts of the near-Earth space environment.
• A single centralized database could offer advantages over multiple smaller ones, which tend to be either broadly available but incomplete, or highly detailed but not broadly available.
• Automated "satellite as a sensor" methods for identifying and cataloguing anomalies may also reduce the workload of those investigating satellite anomalies.

There Are Real Obstacles to Creating a Centralized Database

• Commercial satellite owners are reluctant to share detailed anomaly information with the broader community, citing potential decreases in consumer confidence as well as exposure of proprietary information.
• While it might be possible for a government agency or third party to build and manage such a centralized and secure database, there is a lack of dedicated resources available to support such a service.

There Are Solutions

• Management of a centralized database by a trusted third party, encryption techniques such as secure multiparty computing, and differential privacy may help overcome inhibitions of commercial satellite operators to share anomaly information, thus contributing to greater benefit throughout the satellite operator community.
• Candidate organizations that could serve as a trusted third party include federal agencies and federally funded research and development centers. Satellite insurance companies could also play this role, as they have an interest in maintaining data and in keeping it secret for clients.

Satellite anomalies are mission-degrading events that negatively affect on-orbit operational spacecraft. All satellites experience anomalies of some kind during their operational lifetime. They range in severity from temporary errors in noncritical subsystems to loss-of-contact and complete mission failure. There is a range of causes for these anomalies, and investigations by the satellite operator or manufacturer to determine the cause of a specific anomaly are sometimes conducted at significant expense.

Maintaining an anomaly database is one way to build an empirical understanding of what situations are more or less likely to result in satellite anomalies, and help determine causal relationships. These databases can inform future design and orbital regimes, and can help determine measures to prolong the useful life of an on-orbit spacecraft experiencing problems. However, there is no centralized, up-to-date, detailed, and broadly available database of anomalies covering many different satellites.

This report describes the nature and causes of satellite anomalies, and the potential benefits of a shared and centralized satellite anomaly database. Findings indicate that a shared satellite anomaly database would bring significant benefits to the commercial community, and the main obstacles are reluctance to share detailed information with the broader community, as well as a lack of dedicated resources available to any trusted third party to build and manage such a database. Trusted third parties and cryptographic methods such as secure multiparty computing or differential privacy are not complete solutions, but show potential to be further tailored to help resolve the issue of securely sharing anomaly data.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Satellite Anomalies

• Chapter Three

  Anomaly Databases

• Chapter Four

  Meeting the Security Requirements of Contributors

• Chapter Five

  Observations and Recommendations