Flight software application framework simplifies development for RBSP spacecraft

Abstract

With the trend in spacecraft flight software systems toward the use of message-based architectures, flight software systems are being decomposed into several discrete applications each with a relatively narrow focus. These applications, however, share several common requirements for initialization, command processing, parameter management and telemetry generation. Even with a single common design, if each of these functions were left up to individual application developers, there would be multiple implementations. Each of these implementations would require testing and maintenance, which increases the overall development and maintenance costs and also increases the potential for bugs. In lieu of leaving these functions up to each individual developer of the applications the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Flight Software development team has isolated the commonality across all of the flight software applications and created an application framework. This framework separates the software functions that are common to all applications and the software functions that give a particular application its unique personality. An application deployment tool was also created that allows a developer to create a new application using this framework and insert it into a flight software system in a matter of minutes. The use of an application framework and deployment tool speeds up software development by enabling the creation of an executable application that can receive commands and generate basic telemetry in minutes. This approach, through the separation of the common application code and specific application code allows all applications to use the same overall design while enabling the batch maintenance of the common functionality. This paper discusses the design of the RBSP application framework, deployment tools, the flight software maintenance model, as well as the impact on the flight software development cycle.