Abstract
As with other subsystems, improved hardware has allowed spacecraft software to become a rapid growth area within mission architectures. Early spacecraft either relied heavily on user commands from the ground or preprogrammed sequences to complete their objectives. As missions became more complex and computing hardware became smaller and more manageable, mission designers moved functionality from the ground systems to the flight computers.
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Notes
- 1.
The definitions of these terms can vary from organization to organization or between application environments. For instance, for United States Department of Defense missions, telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) is used in place of C&DH.
- 2.
Measuring the relative performance of processors cannot be done by strictly comparing clock speeds. Multiple factors such as the instruction set, caching, and floating-point capability can influence performance. Although there is no absolute method for comparison, synthetic benchmark programs such as Dhrystone, Whetstone, and CoreMark can provide acceptable indications of performance.
- 3.
Software development is driven by multiple documents from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). These include ESA’s ECSS-E-40, DoD Standard DOD-STD-2167A, NASA Procedural Requirements 7,150.2, and Goddard Procedural Requirements 1,000.
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Krupiarz, C., Mirantes, A., Reid, D., Hill, A., Ward, R. (2014). Flight Software. In: Macdonald, M., Badescu, V. (eds) The International Handbook of Space Technology. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41101-4_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41101-4_16
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