MimicSat: A Reconfigurable Cyber-Physical Testbed For Small Satellite Systems and Cybersecurity Research
MimicSat is a reconfigurable cyber-physical testbed for comparing small-satellite behavior under attacks and faults.
The paper presents MimicSat, an experimental environment for studying how changes in satellite subsystems affect mission outcomes across software-based and hardware-based execution. A shared mission definition preserves command and telemetry semantics while allowing individual functions to be implemented differently. Collected observations retain provenance about participants and acquisition paths so behavior can be compared without redefining the mission. The authors describe the architecture and uses in systems engineering, operations, resilience, and spacecraft cybersecurity experiments.
- Supports matched software and hardware execution of the same mission.
- Shared command and telemetry semantics enable cross-environment comparison.
- Designed for controlled studies of attacks, faults, and defenses.
- Also intended for systems engineering, operations, and resilience experiments.
Full article170 words · extracted from arxiv.org · click to collapse
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.
Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28228