In the wake of the rapid deployment of large-scale low-Earth orbit satellite constellations, exploiting the full computing potential of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices in these environments has become a pressing issue. However, understanding this problem is far from straightforward due to the inherent differences between the terrestrial infrastructure and the satellite platform in space. In this paper, we take an important step towards closing this knowledge gap by presenting the first measurement study on the thermal control, power management, and performance of COTS computing devices on satellites. Our measurements reveal that the satellite platform and COTS computing devices significantly interplay in terms of the temperature and energy, forming the main constraints on satellite computing. Further, we analyze the critical factors that shape the characteristics of onboard COTS computing devices. We provide guidelines for future research on optimizing the use of such devices for computing purposes. Finally, we have released the datasets to facilitate further study in satellite computing.

翻译：随着大规模低地球轨道卫星星座的快速部署，如何在这些环境中充分利用商用现成（COTS）设备的计算潜力已成为一个紧迫问题。然而，由于地面基础设施与太空卫星平台之间存在固有差异，理解这一问题远非易事。本文通过首次对卫星上COTS计算设备的热控制、电源管理和性能进行测量研究，在弥合这一知识鸿沟方面迈出了重要一步。我们的测量结果表明，卫星平台与COTS计算设备在温度和能量方面存在显著的相互影响，这构成了卫星计算的主要约束条件。此外，我们分析了影响星载COTS计算设备特性的关键因素，为未来优化此类设备计算用途的研究提供了指导原则。最后，我们已发布数据集以促进卫星计算的进一步研究。