NGST ground software and flight software will enable exciting scientific research programs that will address fundamental questions about the structure of the universe and the evolution of galaxies, stars and planets. The design of the spacecraft and instrument command system architecture acknowledges from project start that the ground software and flight software are parts of a single integrated system. A layered architecture is presented where the ground system software provides descriptions of "what to do" with the spacecraft and science instruments, while the flight software provides the detailed "how to do" rules required to execute these requests. All specific knowledge about onboard computer memory structures, hardware device communication rules, and spacecraft/science instrument operational sequences will be encapsulated onboard the spacecraft. The ground system will simply supply high-level alphanumeric requests that the flight software knows how to interpret and perform.

Date Published: 13 December 2002
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4848, Advanced Telescope and Instrumentation Control Software II, (13 December 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.461430

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4848:
Advanced Telescope and Instrumentation Control Software II
Hilton Lewis, Editor(s)