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SCRAMBL (Space Communication Reconstruction and Mapping with Blockchain Ledgering)

Award Information
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Branch: N/A
Contract: 80NSSC20C0294
Agency Tracking Number: 206321
Amount: $124,817.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: STTR
Solicitation Topic Code: T11
Solicitation Number: STTR_20_P1
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2020
Award Year: 2020
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2020-08-23
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2021-09-30
Small Business Information
7852 Walker Drive
Greenbelt, MD 20770-3208
United States
DUNS: 110592016
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Ken Center
 (240) 391-3310
 ken.center@orbitlogic.com
Business Contact
 Ella Herz
Phone: (301) 982-6234
Email: ella.herz@orbitlogic.com
Research Institution
 Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering
 
5700 Rivertech Court, Suite 210
Riverdale, MD 20737-1250
United States

 Nonprofit College or University
Abstract

Orbit Logic and the Fraunhofer USA Center for Experimental Software Engineering propose development of a solution called SCRAMBL (Space Communication Reconstruction and Mapping with Blockchain Ledgering), which will leverage blockchain technology to store and distribute a ledger containing satellite constellation-relevant shared data to enable satellite onboard autonomy cooperative attendance of individual assets to system-level needs and objectives. The ledger contains an inventory of established communication paths based on spacecraft-published connection state changes, but more importantly hosts events, states, objectives and plans that constitute a Common Relevant Operating Picture (CROP) ndash; key to enabling a space networkrsquo;s coordination and overall awareness. When complemented with Orbit Logicrsquo;s Autonomous Planning System (APS) solution (already developed and proven on high-fidelity testbeds), SCRAMBL will allow the constellation as a whole to achieve greater overall system utility through agent-supported asset teaming strategies. The underlying blockchain algorithm to be developed in this research will routinely evaluate and recompose the system networking graph so that any one spacecraft node may determine the most effective method of routing a message to any other node. The dynamic network adaptiveness of SCRAMBL will naturally route around spacecraft communication disruptions and disconnections. The space-specific algorithms to be developed under this research topic will be lightweight and tailored toward efficient execution on the resource constrained computing elements used on satellites. The network path routing optimizations performed will scale well as the constellation is grown, dynamically adapting to the future addition of assets (late joiners).

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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