MimicSat enables testing satellite missions with software and hardware models
MimicSat: A Reconfigurable Cyber-Physical Testbed For Small Satellite Systems and Cybersecurity Research
Cryptography and Security
Summary
Satellite developers often need to study how changes in parts of a spacecraft affect its overall mission, especially when dealing with cyberattacks or faults. MimicSat provides a shared setup where the same satellite mission can be run using both software and hardware models to observe differences and responses. This helps researchers see how problems in one part spread and impact outcomes, without changing the mission itself. The system keeps track of where data comes from, making it easier to compare results from different setups. Besides cybersecurity, MimicSat can also help in satellite design and operation tests.
What this means in practice
- •For satellite systems engineers: Run the same satellite mission across software and hardware setups to test subsystem changes and verify mission impacts.
- •For cybersecurity analysts: Conduct controlled experiments involving cyberattacks and defenses on small satellite missions using consistent environments.
Authors
Nisha Vinayaga-Sureshkanth, A H M Nazmus Sakib, Mahsin Bin Akram, David R. Silva, Murtuza Jadliwala
Abstract
MimicSat provides a common experimental environment for examining how changes in satellite subsystem behavior propagate to mission outcomes across software-based and hardware-based execution. Its design is motivated by controlled spacecraft cybersecurity studies involving attacks, faults, and defensive responses. In MimicSat, a mission encompasses the spacecraft and ground activities required to achieve defined objectives, and an experiment consists of one or more mission runs used to study selected conditions or interventions. To support such studies, MimicSat offers software-based and hardware-based execution environments that implement the same mission functions and data exchanges, while allowing specific functions to be realized differently. A shared mission definition preserves command and telemetry semantics across environments, and collected observations retain provenance about the originating participants and acquisition paths. As a result, mission behavior can be compared across execution configurations without redefining the surrounding mission. This paper presents the architectural principles of MimicSat, its software and hardware execution forms, and their integrated operation. MimicSat also supports satellite systems engineering, mission operations, resilience studies, and related experimental use cases.