A Provenance Chain for Decentralized Data Ecosystems in Space Missions

Data provenance, the ability to trace the complete history, transformations, and responsible actors behind mission data, is fundamental to ensuring data integrity, auditability, and trust in aerospace systems. As AI-driven autonomy accelerates across spacecraft, ground systems, and multi-partner mission operations, provenance becomes essential for validating data quality and supporting responsible AI practices. However, space missions operate in delay-tolerant, resource-constrained, and intermittently connected environments where traditional blockchain approaches, which rely on global consensus and continuous connectivity, are infeasible. This paper presents a lightweight, sequentially decentralized provenance chain designed specifically for distributed space mission architectures. The approach preserves key security guarantees including integrity, authenticity, and non-repudiation while remaining functional under intermittent communication and heterogeneous international collaboration. The system enables verifiable, append-only data lineage without imposing the computational or networking overhead typical of blockchain systems. Furthermore, the design aligns with emerging decentralized data ecosystems such as Gaia-X and IDSA, supporting cross-organizational trust frameworks and policy-compliant data exchanges. The proposed solution provides a scalable and interoperable foundation for secure, transparent, and reproducible mission data handling, enabling more resilient and autonomous operations in future space exploration and Earth-observation missions.