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The State of CryptoLib – The Open-Source Satellite Cryptography Library

What state would the world be in if all internet traffic was unencrypted? Imagine an alternate universe where you can plug a packet sniffing device into your home internet and capture the web traffic of the entire world. It seems obvious that this scenario is less than desirable. If we would not allow this for the internet, why would we allow this in the space domain? With the advent of open-source ground stations, commercial off the shelf hardware, and ground stations as a service, the barrier to entry for space communications is rapidly lowering. New players enter the space realm everydayevery day, and the presence of tools to allow apprentice evildoers the ability to exploit satellite communications is on the horizon. Not only are legacy missions at risk, but future missions are as well - particularly lower budget science missions with more stringent sciencesize, weight, and power constraints. that may find it difficult to utilize hardware-based encryption solutions. In terms of Civilian Aerospace, NASA Standard 1006 generally directs that missions "shall protect the command stack with encryption that meets or exceeds Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140". Fortunately, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) has published an international standard on Space Data Link Security. The combination of these two forces has resulted in CryptoLib - an open-source, C-based, encryption library that aims to be CCSDS SDLS compliant. CryptoLib is designed to support smaller missions on a tight budget that may be subject to the more stringent command link encryption requirements. Additionally, CryptoLib serves as an underpinning in JPL's Key Management & Cryptography (KMC) suite and is also designed to function as a 'drop-in' for smaller missions. CryptoLib is in active development and currently provides Telecommand (TC), Telemetry (TM), and Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) encryption and decryption capabilities with a variety of encryption and authentication schemes. This presentation will report the latest features, current status, and future plans for CryptoLib.

open-source encryption↗

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BurstCube: Behind the Scenes of a Do-No-Harm I&T Production

BurstCube is one of the most recent 6-U CubeSats built and developed by NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC). As an astrophysics mission, BurstCube will be a rapid detection alert end-to-end mission system for short astrophysical gamma-ray bursts with the aim of increasing the chance of coincident detection of gamma-ray bursts. In addition, the mission is intended to augment the current fleet of gamma-ray astronomy satellites. The payload instrument includes 4 scintillator heads read out by arrays of silicon photomultipliers which will detect short astrophysical gamma-ray bursts. BurstCube provides a high field of view previously unavailable to larger missions and is intended to provide rapid alerts for follow up observations with other assets, increasing the chance of a coincident detection of an event. From the design to the integration and test phases, the project aimed to provide realistic test plans and stimulus to help verify and validate reachable areas of this innovative payload/instrument system and even spacecraft performance. Typical robust integration and test phases for space missions are unaligned with the budget and risk postures of small satellite or CubeSat missions, often designated as “Do No Harm” projects where the primary requirement is not harming the host platform or other payloads. Despite this status, CubeSats are complex missions that mix new and prior technologies. Integration and test for these missions requires responsible engineering, creative collaboration, and careful observation to deliver a reliable mission. This paper will provide an overview of the payload instrument and mission system, areas of injected automation (current and future), environmental testing results, and lessons learned during the integration and test phase.

CubeSats↗