Protection that stays
with the mission.

NADE watches the spacecraft and its communications continuously. It finds abnormal change, assesses the likely cause, and protects the mission within authority set by the operator.

In development
01The system

Watch. Understand. Decide. Protect.

The spacecraft gets a continuous watch that remains active between contacts. When behavior changes, NADE carries the event from first observation to an authorized response.

01

Watch

Track vehicle health and communications while the mission is outside ground contact.

02

Understand

Compare the event with the vehicle, orbit, and operating state the mission expects.

03

Decide

State the likely cause, confidence, and evidence while time remains to act.

04

Protect

Recommend or take actions that the operator has already approved for the mission.

02Two sources

See the event from two sides.

Spacecraft health shows what changed inside the vehicle. Link behavior adds evidence about what happened outside it. Together, they reduce the ambiguity between a fault and hostile activity.

01

Spacecraft health

Battery state, bus voltage, attitude control, temperatures, and other subsystem behavior show how the vehicle is changing.

02

Optical-link behavior

The physical shape of the optical carrier can reveal interference that a power reading alone does not separate from normal drift.

Optical signal behaviorIllustrative
Nominal

Expected carrier

Photon counts gather around one stable peak.

Lower photon countHigher photon count
The baseline holds

Normal traffic remains concentrated inside the learned response.

Interference

Disturbed carrier

The distribution broadens and develops a second concentration.

Lower photon countHigher photon count
The shape changes

Several features move together, providing independent evidence of interference.

Several features of the optical carrier move together. That change provides independent evidence of interference.
03Measured result

The signal shows up before the power meter.

In the simulated optical-link demonstrator, the classifier separated moderate interference from nominal behavior more clearly than a monitor based on received power alone.

Optical-link detection performanceSimulated demonstrator
Optical-link detection performanceClassifier and power-only AUC converge at strong injection. The largest measured advantage appears at moderate injection strength.0.70.80.91.00.20.30.50.7
The measured advantage is widest at moderate injection strength, where added power remains close to normal link drift.
04Earlier warning

Act before the limit.

A developing failure can stay inside every fixed limit while the trajectory becomes steadily worse. NADE watches the direction of change.

Battery scenario · State of chargeSimulated
Battery state of charge over timeNADE identifies the declining trajectory at 28 minutes. Fixed-limit logic acts when the charge reaches 30 percent at 58 minutes.80%60%40%015304560About 30 minutes to respondLow-charge threshold · 30%82% at start
T+28

NADE identifies the trajectory

About 30 minutes remain before the low-charge threshold.

T+58

Fixed-limit logic acts

The first response begins only after the threshold is crossed.

The spacecraft remains inside fixed limits while the failure develops. Earlier awareness gives the mission more time to respond.
05Operator control

The operator sets the boundary.

NADE is prepared around the mission, its normal behavior, and its approved actions. Broad mission changes remain with the human team.

Between contactsProtection remains with the spacecraft when a live operator is unavailable.
With evidenceEach decision carries the cause, confidence, and observations behind it.
Within authorityThe operator defines which actions the spacecraft may take on its own.

Protecting a mission in contested orbit?

We work with program offices, primes, manufacturers, and operators.

Contact NADE