Telemetry data is the most valuable asset provided by any spacecraft. Increasing the data amount sent from space to ground increases a mission’s value, but often this comes with increased costs. Compression of Space generated data provides great benefits to both the large ESA missions by increasing the mission science throughput and small missions (which typically have low bandwidth) by increasing the traditional low downlink rates of these missions. One solution to this problem is the POCKET+ lossless compression algorithm, which is currently being standardized by CCSDS [1]. This algorithm however, can compress only a single packet size per compression context. We are developing a central component inspired by the computer cache that compresses any given data using multiple contexts simultaneously. Furthermore, it automates the management of such contexts, including their release. This central component, the CompressionCache, holds multiple objects that can apply a compression algorithm to a given data packet. All compression objects process every data packet and a newly introduced mechanism can distinguish which object compresses which data packet. A related approach can be found in the CCSDS standard for lossless data compression [2] where the best compressing algorithm is selected for every given data packet. This differs from our approach that manages (create/maintain/release) multiple contexts of the POCKET+ standard. The CompressionCache receives and redistributes data packets over a network interface and can be used by other experimenters. The selected communication interface is readily available for other programming languages and operating systems. Detailed documentation will describe all implemented interfaces, classes, and functions to allow the project’s usage by other experimenters as a service.
