European space agency deploys PROBA satellite using wind river technology

Citation

(2003), "European space agency deploys PROBA satellite using wind river technology", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 75 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2003.12775aab.010

European space agency deploys PROBA satellite using wind river technology

European space agency deploys PROBA satellite using wind river technology

Keywords: Space, Satellites, Software

Wind River, a provider of software and services for connected devices, recently awarded the European Space Agency (ESA) its “Cool Customer Design” award for the Project for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA) micro-satellite system – the first ESA spacecraft with fully autonomous capabilities. The PROBA satellite operates virtually unaided by ESA staff on the ground with the help of Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS). PROBA is currently in orbit 600 Milometres above the Earth’s surface, testing the validity of self-functioning space technologies and performing several scientific activities to monitor the health of our planet.

“We chose Wind River’s VxWorks operating system for PROBA because of its robustness and proven reliability on space missions”, said Dominique Baudoux, Space Business Unit, Program manager for Spacebel – the subcontractor responsible for providing PROBA’s flight software. “Because PROBA operates virtually unaided, we needed a trustworthy operating system capable of reliable operation while in space. PROBA is thus far a great success and we are very pleased with the software.”

PROBA was launched via rocket by the Indian Space Research Organization and sent into orbit on 22 October 2001. Despite being very small in size and weight, the satellite boasts an extensive range of advanced capabilities and instrumentation. PROBA has the ability to observe the same spot on Earth from a number of different angles, and has already provided scientists with detailed environmental images through its compact high resolution imaging spectrometer (CHRIS) – the main payload onboard the spacecraft. Data from the lightweight instrument are sent automatically from PROBA to ESA’s ground station in Redu, Belgium allowing scientists to develop tools for environmental monitoring, forest cataloging, crop forecasting and marine science.

Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS controls all on-board functions of the PROBA satellite. The capabilities of the VxWorks RTOS also help enable PROBA to upload new versions of software as it orbits the earth. This functionality is based on Wind River’s robust “incremental linking” technology. The scalability of the VxWorks RTOS also proved extremely important, as the operating system memory footprint was reduced to a minimum while reliably controlling all on-board instruments, tests and communications. The VxWorks kernel accounts for less than 10 per cent of the total lines of code on-board PROBA.

“Wind River has a strong history in space exploration including major projects with NASA and other agencies like the ESA, which speaks to the proven reliability of our technology”, said Steve Blackman, director of marketing for Wind River’s aerospace and defence business unit. “Developers of spacecraft have been able to leverage Wind River’s integrated, commercial-off-the-shelf software solutions and development tools to get to market much faster than by developing their own solutions or turning to other COTS vendors.”

During its projected 2 year lifetime, PROBA will be performing a series of scientific and housekeeping activities that can be planned, controlled and monitored by both the ground team and the satellite’s on-board computer. Functions that will be tested for autonomy possibilities include scheduling and planning of scientific experiments, data collection, communications between PROBA, scientific users, and the ground team, management of routine satellite functions, and failure detection. Most satellites currently require interaction between the ground and the spacecraft to carry out similar activities.

Details available from: WindRiver. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7494 6570; E-mail: windriver@rainirco.co.uk; Web site: www.windriver.com