Failure detection/management in launch vehicle avionics

Abstract

The avionics systems in launch vehicles carry out a large number of mission critical functions such as navigation guidance control and sequencing. It is necessary that such systems are built with redundancy features to eliminate the single point failures. This paper presents the redundancy aspects used in mission critical avionics of Indian Satellite launch vehicles. The failure detection isolation and reconfiguration philosophy used in onboard hardware/software are discussed. The validation methodology used to evaluate the redundancy aspects are also highlighted.