TIMED Autonomy System

he TIMED onboard Autonomy System provides fault protection and safi ng of the spacecraft and performs a limited set of routine operations. The main requirements of fault protection and safi ng are to detect failed or improperly functioning spacecraft components and autonomously replace them in the operational confi guration with properly functioning counterparts. The high degree of autonomy onboard TIMED and in the ground system greatly reduces the required post-launch mission operations staff by ≈66% compared with nonautonomous operations. To lessen the inherent risk of so much automation, a careful development process is followed that includes reviews and ground testing. Using embedded processes designed into processors and components and applying rule-based logic, the concepts for reducing the size of the post-launch operations staff are realized by the TIMED Autonomy System.