{"dataset":{"slug":"spacecraft-subsystems","title":"Spacecraft Subsystems","description":"The major spacecraft subsystems — structure, thermal, power, propulsion, attitude control, avionics, and more.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":10,"sources":["nasa","esa"]},"entities":[{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:attitude-control","name":"Attitude Determination & Control (ADCS)","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The subsystem that determines and controls which way a spacecraft points — sensing its orientation with star trackers and gyroscopes, and turning it with reaction wheels or thrusters.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/attitude-control"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:command-and-data-handling","name":"Command & Data Handling (Avionics)","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The spacecraft's onboard computing — the flight computer, software, and memory that execute commands, run the spacecraft autonomously, and manage faults across the long light-time to deep space.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/command-and-data-handling"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:crew-systems","name":"Crew & Life-Support Systems","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"For crewed spacecraft, the systems that keep people alive and let vehicles join up — environmental control and life support (ECLSS) and the docking mechanisms that connect spacecraft.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/crew-systems"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:electrical-power","name":"Electrical Power","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The subsystem that generates, stores, and distributes electricity — from solar arrays or radioisotope generators, through batteries, to every instrument and heater on board.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/electrical-power"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:entry-descent-and-landing","name":"Entry, Descent & Landing (EDL)","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The subsystem — and the few dramatic minutes — that gets a spacecraft from the top of an atmosphere to a safe landing: a heat shield to survive entry, a parachute or thrusters to slow down, and legs or airbags to touch down.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/entry-descent-and-landing"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:propulsion","name":"Propulsion","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The subsystem that changes a spacecraft's velocity — for orbit insertion, trajectory corrections, and station-keeping — using chemical, electric, or cold-gas thrusters.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/propulsion"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:robotics","name":"Robotics","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The robotic arms and manipulators that let spacecraft build, service, sample, and move cargo — from the Space Shuttle and station arms to the sampling arms of planetary landers.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/robotics"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:structure","name":"Structure","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The mechanical skeleton of a spacecraft — the load-bearing frame that holds everything together and survives the violence of launch, plus the mechanisms that deploy solar arrays, antennas, and instruments once in space.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/structure"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:telecommunications","name":"Telecommunications","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The subsystem that carries commands up and telemetry and science data down — the spacecraft's radios and antennas, working with the ground network.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/telecommunications"},{"id":"spacecraft_subsystem:thermal-control","name":"Thermal Control","type":"spacecraft_subsystem","domain":"science","description":"The subsystem that keeps every part of a spacecraft within its allowable temperature range, radiating away waste heat and insulating against the extreme cold of space and the heat of the Sun.","entryPath":"/spacecraft-systems/thermal-control"}]}