For ESA’s EnVision Mission to Venus, a consortium of three spectrometers from across Europe has been formed to collaborate not only on the management and science aspects, but also on the technical implementation. One important technical goal of the VenSpec suite is to implement a clean, simple and robust interface to the spacecraft and to provide an abstraction layer between the channels and the spacecraft. This is achieved by implementing the Central Control Unit (CCU), which provides a harmonized power and data interface to the spacecraft and allows the channels to design for a simple tailored internal interface to the CCU. The CCU consists of two electrical subsystems, the Data Handling Unit (CCU DHU), developed by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen and the Institute of Computer and Network Engineering (IDA) in Braunschweig and the Power Supply Unit (CCU PSU), developed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) in Granada, the system responsibility being at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research (DLR-PF) in Berlin. Within this framework, an extended electrical architecture trade-off was performed in 2023 to optimize the system, guaranteeing the requested functionality and complying to requirements from all sides. As a result of the trade-off. a single power and data interface were found to be the most suitable and robust solution considering performance, reliability, Fault Detection Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) considerations as well as the complexity of the associated verification campaign. This paper demonstrates the options that were suggested by the different parties and justifies the final architecture, which has been chosen to achieve the best solution for the VenSpec suite.
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