System Engineering & Integration Lessons Learned from Commercial Aircraft Integrated Modular Avionics Systems as they Apply to Applications in Space Vehicles
Byron Birkedahl, Ted Bonk · 2010
Integrated Modular Avionics, otherwise known as IMA, is an architecture extensively applied in recent commercial aircraft avionics systems and now just beginning to be applied to Space vehicles. IMA architectures utilize common hardware and software building blocks along with abstraction design principles. By contrast legacy spacecraft systems have employed federated architectures where the various units or groups of units within the avionics have little design commonality with each other. Compared with a federated architecture IMA’s design features have allowed systems to achieve: Lower power, size and weight Lower overall acquisition costs Shorter software life cycles and development schedules Much easier ability to upgrade the system More flexibility for changes Scalability for the desired redundancy and improved safety Lessons learned from commercial aircraft programs have shown that IMA systems cannot be developed in the same ways as federated systems. Commercial aviation has had the benefit of numerous aircraft programs along with avionics architectures that have evolved in more and more complexity over the years – allowing the time to create development guidelines and standards to address the evolution of technology. New human flight space vehicles by contrast only come along at a very low rate. The lessons learned in developing complex IMA avionics for commercial aircraft can greatly assist in the Space Vehicle development practices to take full advantage of the benefits IMA architectures provide.