Abstract: A remote sensing system having a modular bus architecture. The bus architecture of the present invention comprises a modular reconfigurable processing unit which functions as an interface between the sensors and the communications components. The system has three main components: (1) input pods that provide physical and logical interfaces to whatever sensors (similar or dissimilar) are to be used, (2) output pods that provide physical and logical interfaces to whatever communications devices (similar or dissimilar) are to be used, and (3) a reconfigurable interface and processing unit that accepts both the input and output pods as plug-in devices and that provides control, format conversion, data buffering, data manipulation, power management, and other needed services for inputting the data, processing the data, and transmitting the data, regardless of the sensor type or communications device.