System approach of selection to purpose designed equipment of small spacecraft

It is proposed to use methods of system analysis in designing small spacecraft. It is shown that a perspective small spacecraft can be represented as a set of technical subsystems that are characterized by various parameters: target indicators, reliability indicators (reliability, durability, maintainability), processability indicators, standardization and unification. A systematic approach to the selection of the rational composition of a set of on-board instrumentation for a specific purpose was adopted. We prove the urgency of space monitoring by means of onboard scientific equipment (OSE) of small spacecraft (SS), with the purpose of receiving geophysical data. We consider physical phenomena asso- ciated with seismic activity and registered by a number of SS instruments. We present an analysis of publications that demonstrate the possibility of space monitoring of seismic activity. We propose methodology for analyzing satellite data obtained by onboard geophysical instruments, the composition of which depends on content requirements and technical SS characteristics. We conducted an expert review of the sources of basic predictive information. To choose the crite- ria, we implemented the method of paired comparisons with the “threshold principle”. The criteria chosen were: the urgency of the earthquake precursor, and the economic validity and feasibility of the instruments’s creation. A signifi- cant concordance coefficient has been obtained, it indicates a rigid coupling between the experts’ assessments. The results of calculating the priority of predictive information indicators are presented, based on the indicated criteria. We proposed the visualization of the selection of the predictive information results. We validated the applicability and optimal composition of on-board scientific equipment (OSE) of SS to diagnose the seismic activity. Finally, we deter- mined the prospects of developing a space monitoring system for earthquake precursors. The realized system approach can be used for forming the appearance of perspective small spacecraft for various purposes, including for solving problems of remote sensing of the Earth.