Small Spacecraft Reliability Initiative Knowledge Base Tool v2.0 Released

The Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. 

The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous NASA small satellite missions sponsored by other organizations. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at https://s3vi.ndc.nasa.gov/ssri-kb/.

The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small satellite missions. These resources include original SSRI-generated content in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and reference books. Knowledge base content is provided for download when possible and otherwise linked to or referenced from the Knowledge Base.

In the interest of quickly evolving and growing alongside the state-of-the-art technology, the SSRI Knowledge Base includes user ratings and interfaces for crowdsourcing of new content. All user-recommended content is thoroughly reviewed by subject matter experts before being incorporated into the Knowledge Base.

The SSRI Knowledge Base is composed of 58 topic pages and currently includes content for the 40 topic pages listed below. Combined, these 40 topic pages contain nearly 300 unique resources and 180 best practices and lessons learned. Topic pages are organized under six major SmallSat project phases.

Conceptual Design: Mission Architecture Design, Mission Simulation and Analysis

Planning and Management: Mission Assurance Requirements, Scheduling, Cost Estimating, Reporting and Documentation, Licensing and Regulations, Design Reviews

Detailed Design and Analysis: Orbit Design and Analysis, ConOps Planning and Autonomy, Mechanical and Thermal Design, Material Selection, Structural Analysis, Thermal Analysis, Circuit Design, Board Layout, Part Selection, Circuit Analysis, Radiation Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Embedded Software/Firmware Development, Embedded Software/Firmware Unit Testing, Embedded Software/Firmware Timing Analysis, Flight Software Development, Flight Software Testing, Electrical Power Subsystem Design,        Electronics Manufacturing, Mechanical Assembly

Integration and Test: Integration, Day-in-the-Life Testing, Electronics Functional Testing, Single Event Effects Testing, Total Ionizing Dose Testing, Vibration Testing, Thermal Cycling, Thermal Vacuum, Burn-In, Electrical Power Subsystem Testing

Launch:  Launch Procurement

Operations: On-Orbit Fault Recovery

Recent enhancements to the Knowledge Base tool have been deployed on the site and include: user interface improvements, new content, a public Application Programming Interface (API), and improved crowdsourcing interfaces. Please continue to visit the tool to utilize these new features and additional content.