Anonymous, authenticated and private satellite tasking system
AssigneeUrugus S.A.
InventorsGerardo Gabriel Richarte, Emiliano Kargieman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods and devices for implementing cryptographic and security-in-depth techniques on-board spacecrafts or satellites are provided, to allow users to task activities or retrieve satellite data from the satellite system in an anonymous, secure, safe, and private manner, such that no other user sharing the satellite system resources can know what has been tasked or transmitted to the ground. Considerable advantages can be realized by providing spacecraft or satellite systems with a substantial capacity of applying security-in-depth and cryptographic techniques and protocols to data and requests, based on autonomous tasking, allowing a secure, safe and private use of spacecraft or satellite resources.
Claims20
A private satellite tasking system comprising:
- a satellite comprising computer-readable media, one or more sensors, and one or more on-board computers;
- one or more application programming interfaces on-board the satellite configured to expose satellite resources to the one or more on-board computers;
- and
- a programming interface broker on-board the satellite configured to authenticate and authorize the one or more application programming interfaces;
- the computer-readable media including one or more instructions, that when executed by the one or more on-board computers, cause the one or more on-board computers to perform acts comprising:
- determining, by the programming interface broker, permissions granted to a user of one or more users;
- assigning, based at least in part on the permissions, a user on-board computer of the one or more on-board computers to each of the one or more users or each user profile associated with each of the one or more users;
- determining, based at least in part on the permissions, one or more satellite resources of the satellite to assign to the user on-board computer;
- and
- assigning, based at least in part on the permissions, at least one application programming interface of the one or more application programming interfaces to the user on-board computer to expose the one or more satellite resources of the satellite to the user on-board computer to provide an exclusive operative control of the one or more satellite resources of the satellite to the user on-board computer, for an extent of an operating window assigned to each of the one or more users;
- wherein the at least one application programming interface of the one or more application programming interfaces is configured to implement cryptographic and security-in-depth techniques with respect to one or more messages received from and/or transmitted to one or more users while the satellite is in orbit.
A method under control of one or more processors in a satellite, the method comprising:
- receiving and/or transmitting one or more messages from and/or to one or more users while the satellite is in orbit;
- implementing, by a first application programming interface, cryptographic and security-in-depth techniques with respect to the one or more messages received from and/or transmitted to the one or more users while the satellite is in orbit;
- generating by a programming interface broker, based on received and/or stored permissions, a description of permissions and privileges associated with each of the one or more users;
- assigning, based at least in part on the description, a user onboard computer to each of the one or more users or user profiles associated with each of the one or more users;
- determining, based at least in part on the description, one or more satellite resources of the satellite to assign to a user on-board computer;
- and
- assigning, based at least in part on the description, one or more second application programming interfaces to the user on-board computer to expose the one or more satellite resources of the satellite to the user on-board computer to provide an exclusive operative control of the one or more satellite resources of the satellite to the user on-board computer, for an extent of an operating window assigned to each of the one or more users.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.