Wind River's VxWorks real-time operating system plays a central role in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity. VxWorks controls all of Curiosity's functions from managing avionics to collecting science data and sending it back to Earth. It helped enable the extremely complex landing sequence where Curiosity had to slow from 13,000 mph to zero. VxWorks also directs antennae to determine Curiosity's location and trajectory for navigation. The successful launch and landing of Curiosity demonstrate how VxWorks reliably performs critical operations to help achieve NASA's mission of exploring Mars.
This document summarizes NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP), which works to advance NASA technologies through partnerships with industry, academia, and other government agencies. The IPP provides funding, expertise, facilities, and other resources to help mature partner technologies and infusion them into NASA's missions. It oversees various programs like SBIR/STTR that award hundreds of contracts annually to small businesses and also runs incubators like Centennial Challenges that incentivize innovation. The goal is to bridge gaps between technology development and application to help solve challenges across NASA's mission directorates.
The ITIC will examine NASA's IT infrastructure, software, and data environments to identify opportunities for improvement. This includes investigating collaborative tools, high performance computing, data storage, and aerospace communications. The committee will also review the OCIO's strategic plans and IT governance across NASA to recommend best practices for managing IT infrastructure. The goal is to help NASA utilize leading edge capabilities and disruptive technologies to enhance distributed teams and mission activities.
NASA's technology landscape involves developing technologies to enable human space exploration and scientific discovery. Key areas include technologies for extreme environments like radiation resistance and temperature extremes. NASA also focuses on developing technologies to increase safety, productivity, and reduce costs for human spaceflight. Examples include closed-loop life support, surface mobility, and communication systems. The International Space Station is a complex of research laboratories that supports scientific research in microgravity. NASA's science, aeronautics, and space operations directorates each work to advance priority technologies through cutting-edge research partnerships.
How do we get information about the universe.pptmrmeredith
The document discusses various topics related to gaining knowledge about the universe including:
- Telescopes and satellites that have provided insights about distant galaxies, black holes, and the age and expansion of the universe
- The Hubble Space Telescope in particular has made many breakthrough discoveries since its 1990 launch
- NASA technology spinoffs have numerous applications in areas like computers, medicine, manufacturing, transportation, and more that have benefited society
Wind river NASA Real-Time Constrained Control SystemsM Reza Rahmati
Wind River's VxWorks real-time operating system plays a central role in NASA's Mars rover Curiosity mission by controlling the rover's functions from launch to completion of its mission. VxWorks manages critical operations like navigation, descent, landing, collecting science data, and transmitting data back to Earth. It helped enable the complex and risky landing sequence within a small target zone on Mars. VxWorks has supported over 20 NASA missions due to its reliable and resilient nature which is essential for missions with no room for failure.
This document summarizes NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP), which works to advance NASA technologies through partnerships with industry, academia, and other government agencies. The IPP provides funding, expertise, facilities, and other resources to help mature partner technologies and infusion them into NASA's missions. It oversees various programs like SBIR/STTR that award hundreds of contracts annually to small businesses and also runs incubators like Centennial Challenges that incentivize innovation. The goal is to bridge gaps between technology development and application to help solve challenges across NASA's mission directorates.
The ITIC will examine NASA's IT infrastructure, software, and data environments to identify opportunities for improvement. This includes investigating collaborative tools, high performance computing, data storage, and aerospace communications. The committee will also review the OCIO's strategic plans and IT governance across NASA to recommend best practices for managing IT infrastructure. The goal is to help NASA utilize leading edge capabilities and disruptive technologies to enhance distributed teams and mission activities.
NASA's technology landscape involves developing technologies to enable human space exploration and scientific discovery. Key areas include technologies for extreme environments like radiation resistance and temperature extremes. NASA also focuses on developing technologies to increase safety, productivity, and reduce costs for human spaceflight. Examples include closed-loop life support, surface mobility, and communication systems. The International Space Station is a complex of research laboratories that supports scientific research in microgravity. NASA's science, aeronautics, and space operations directorates each work to advance priority technologies through cutting-edge research partnerships.
How do we get information about the universe.pptmrmeredith
The document discusses various topics related to gaining knowledge about the universe including:
- Telescopes and satellites that have provided insights about distant galaxies, black holes, and the age and expansion of the universe
- The Hubble Space Telescope in particular has made many breakthrough discoveries since its 1990 launch
- NASA technology spinoffs have numerous applications in areas like computers, medicine, manufacturing, transportation, and more that have benefited society
Wind river NASA Real-Time Constrained Control SystemsM Reza Rahmati
Wind River's VxWorks real-time operating system plays a central role in NASA's Mars rover Curiosity mission by controlling the rover's functions from launch to completion of its mission. VxWorks manages critical operations like navigation, descent, landing, collecting science data, and transmitting data back to Earth. It helped enable the complex and risky landing sequence within a small target zone on Mars. VxWorks has supported over 20 NASA missions due to its reliable and resilient nature which is essential for missions with no room for failure.
The NASA Nebula Project provides a cloud computing platform that addresses NASA's challenge of a fragmented and inefficient IT environment. Nebula offers scalable computing resources that researchers can access easily to perform data processing and analysis. This overcomes limitations of local servers and supercomputers. Early users report being able to accomplish more data-intensive work faster using Nebula. The platform is based on OpenStack, an open source cloud software project.
NASA is working to foster innovation and commercial partnerships through its Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP). IPP provides funding, expertise, facilities, and partnerships to advance technologies that can help achieve NASA's mission. It supports programs like SBIR/STTR that fund hundreds of small businesses annually, as well as seed funds, technology incubators, and prizes that leverage external resources to develop game-changing technologies. The goal is to bridge the gap between research and operational use, and to stimulate innovation that benefits both NASA and private industry.
The document provides information about several projects undertaken by the Aerospace Enterprise student group at Michigan Technological University, including:
1) The Oculus satellite project which involves over 70 students across various subsystem teams designing a CubeSat for a competition.
2) The Ion Propulsion Lab which conducts experiments on electric propulsion thrusters and was founded in 2000.
3) A lunar penetrator project to develop a system to insert a 1-meter rod into the lunar surface to take measurements.
4) Participation in NASA's reduced gravity C-9 aircraft experiments on topics like boom vibration and electron propulsion.
5) The CanSat project which involves launching a satellite
This document discusses the potential for using airships as science platforms for Earth and space science. It proposes the 20-20-20 Airships Challenge through NASA's Centennial Challenges program to encourage development of stratospheric airships. The challenge would award prizes for airships that can carry payloads of 20kg to 20km altitude for 20 hours (Tier 1) or 200kg to 20km altitude for 200 hours (Tier 2). Airships could enable new types of long duration observations for Earth science, atmospheric science, and astrophysics at lower costs than current space missions. The document reviews some example science instruments and investigations that could be performed from airship platforms.
Canada has a long history of involvement in space projects through organizations like the Canadian Space Agency and MDA. Some of Canada's contributions include the Canadarm and Canadarm2 robotic arms used on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. More recently, Canada participated in projects like the Phoenix Mars Lander, Curiosity Mars Rover, and OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission by providing instruments like the MET Lidar and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. Canada is also developing next-generation robotic technologies through projects like the Next Generation Canadarm to enable on-orbit satellite servicing.
Kathy Lueders (NASA) - How Space is a Playground for InnovationTechsylvania
NASA is exploring many areas of space through partnerships with commercial companies, other space agencies, and academia. The International Space Station is enabling research across 13 major science disciplines. NASA is working with international partners on the Artemis program to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and develop sustainable lunar exploration. Future goals include establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon and preparing for human exploration of Mars. NASA is seeking to close capability gaps to achieve these exploration objectives.
NASA's technology landscape involves developing technologies to enable human space exploration and scientific discovery. Key areas include technologies for extreme environments like radiation resistance and temperature extremes. NASA also focuses on developing technologies to increase safety, productivity, and reduce costs for human spaceflight. Examples include closed-loop life support, surface mobility, and communication systems. The International Space Station is a complex of research laboratories that supports scientific research in microgravity. NASA's science, aeronautics, and space operations directorates each work to advance priority technologies through cutting-edge research partnerships.
The document proposes a two-person Mars flyby mission in 2018 with the following key details:
1) The mission would launch on January 5th, 2018 on a free return trajectory that minimizes system loads and requires low energy. It would fly within 200 miles of Mars 228 days later, allowing the first humans to view Mars up close.
2) It would utilize a Dragon spacecraft assembled in low Earth orbit from commercially available launch vehicles and equipment for under $2 billion. The spacecraft would protect the crew from radiation and maintain life support systems.
3) Extensive measures are outlined to ensure crew health and safety during the 501-day mission, including preventative healthcare, telemedicine capabilities, stress-redu
SpaceX was founded in 2002 with the goal of providing low-cost space transportation for cargo and crew. It has over 800 employees and facilities in California, Texas, and launch sites in Florida and California. SpaceX has developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Dragon spacecraft. The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that will begin flights to the International Space Station in 2010 to resupply the station under a NASA contract. The Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying pressurized cargo, experiments, or crew to orbit and returning cargo back to Earth.
1) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is transitioning from understanding cloud computing to actively working in and partnering using cloud technologies.
2) Early prototypes at JPL have shown benefits like reducing processing times from weeks to hours and allowing more scientists worldwide to access Mars rover data.
3) Moving forward, JPL will advance concepts like Cloud Readiness Levels and Cloud Oriented Architectures, transition more applications to an operational cloud model, and continue prototyping new use cases to maximize the benefits of cloud computing.
AWS Customer Presentation - NASA JPL Pervasive Cloud Now and FutureAmazon Web Services
1) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is transitioning from understanding cloud computing to actively working in and partnering using cloud technologies.
2) Early prototypes at JPL have shown benefits like reducing processing times from weeks to hours and allowing more scientists worldwide to access Mars rover data.
3) Moving forward, JPL will advance concepts like Cloud Readiness Levels and Cloud Oriented Architectures, transition more applications to an operational cloud model, and continue prototyping new use cases to maximize the benefits of cloud computing.
The document describes an autonomous underwater surveillance robot. It discusses the design and implementation of an underwater robot, including its structure, block diagram, circuit diagram, and key hardware components like the Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller board. The robot is intended to perform surveillance operations and research tasks underwater in a safe manner by replacing humans in dangerous environments. It can stream live video from its camera to a remote screen.
The document discusses a proposed technology demonstration mission to test electric sail (E-sail) propulsion. E-sails use charged tethers and solar wind to propel spacecraft without propellant. The mission would deploy 16.5 km of tether from a 12U CubeSat at Earth-Moon L1 point. Previous tether missions often failed during deployment, which is identified as the main risk. Three deployment schemes are considered, with a "barbell" design selected for analysis to assess thrusting with charged 16.5 km tethers and steering capabilities. The goal is to advance E-sail technology needed for future missions like faster travel to the Heliopause.
The International Space Station (ISS) serves as a scientific laboratory, technology test bed, and orbiting outpost for conducting research. Over 1,200 experiments have been conducted on the ISS supporting 1,600 scientists in 59 countries. This research is helping to develop the critical technologies and operational experience needed for long duration human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit to destinations like the Moon, asteroids, and Mars. The ISS also functions as a technology demonstration platform for testing exploration capabilities prior to missions farther into space. International cooperation is vital for supporting the long-term sustainability of human space exploration.
Mike Suffredini, Manager, ISS Program Office, NASA Johnson Space Center: "The Next Decade of ISS and Beyond." Presented at the 2013 International Space Station Research and Development Conference, http://www.astronautical.org/issrdc/2013.
This document discusses Teledyne Brown Engineering's space systems department and achievements. It summarizes Teledyne's history in supporting NASA missions dating back to the 1950s. It outlines Teledyne's current work on the International Space Station, including operating the Microgravity Science Glovebox and Life Science Glovebox payloads, and developing and integrating science experiments. One highlighted experiment is a 2019 tissue engineering experiment to observe protein fibril formation under shear forces. The document also mentions Teledyne's work on future vehicles like Dream Chaser and the Deep Space Gateway.
The Evolving ISS Lab: Improvements to Enable New Research & Utilizationmtnadmin
The document discusses improvements being made to enable new research and utilization of the International Space Station (ISS). It summarizes four presentations:
1. Marybeth Edeen discusses ISS integration process improvements to better support customers.
2. Ryan Prouty discusses revolutionizing ISS for science and exploration through a customer-focused culture and more efficient processes.
3. Dana Weigel outlines enhanced ISS capabilities for research, including new facilities, payloads, and vehicle upgrades.
4. Mike Read discusses fostering commerce in space through public-private partnerships and treating commercial partners as customers to stimulate demand for services in low Earth orbit.
Presentation on SpaceX given in class EC 728 - Economics of Innovation by my group. It is one of the most fascinating upcoming companies. With an IPO expected in 2013, it will be interesting to see where it heads..
This document discusses several projects being conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory to advance space situational awareness and space-based science and technology. The projects include developing software to detect gamma-ray bursts, constructing a sky map of the solar system, and sending a supercomputer into space on the Cibola Flight Experiment. The document also mentions developing sensors for the Cassini spacecraft to study Saturn and developing models to better understand radiation belts and accelerating electrons in Earth's magnetic field.
The document discusses modeling mission operations to reduce risk for NASA's Constellation Program. It begins with defining the goals of incorporating new technologies into operations while controlling risk and cost. It then discusses challenges like the need for increased automation and streamlined systems. The solution involved a collaboration between JSC and ARC to develop a simulation of shuttle operations using BRAHMS modeling tools. This prototype showed benefits like reducing time spent on mirroring tasks from over 5% to under 0.5% of a shift. The conclusions were that BRAHMS feasibility for automating complex MCC tasks was verified and could provide insights into processes while assessing risk.
The NASA Nebula Project provides a cloud computing platform that addresses NASA's challenge of a fragmented and inefficient IT environment. Nebula offers scalable computing resources that researchers can access easily to perform data processing and analysis. This overcomes limitations of local servers and supercomputers. Early users report being able to accomplish more data-intensive work faster using Nebula. The platform is based on OpenStack, an open source cloud software project.
NASA is working to foster innovation and commercial partnerships through its Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP). IPP provides funding, expertise, facilities, and partnerships to advance technologies that can help achieve NASA's mission. It supports programs like SBIR/STTR that fund hundreds of small businesses annually, as well as seed funds, technology incubators, and prizes that leverage external resources to develop game-changing technologies. The goal is to bridge the gap between research and operational use, and to stimulate innovation that benefits both NASA and private industry.
The document provides information about several projects undertaken by the Aerospace Enterprise student group at Michigan Technological University, including:
1) The Oculus satellite project which involves over 70 students across various subsystem teams designing a CubeSat for a competition.
2) The Ion Propulsion Lab which conducts experiments on electric propulsion thrusters and was founded in 2000.
3) A lunar penetrator project to develop a system to insert a 1-meter rod into the lunar surface to take measurements.
4) Participation in NASA's reduced gravity C-9 aircraft experiments on topics like boom vibration and electron propulsion.
5) The CanSat project which involves launching a satellite
This document discusses the potential for using airships as science platforms for Earth and space science. It proposes the 20-20-20 Airships Challenge through NASA's Centennial Challenges program to encourage development of stratospheric airships. The challenge would award prizes for airships that can carry payloads of 20kg to 20km altitude for 20 hours (Tier 1) or 200kg to 20km altitude for 200 hours (Tier 2). Airships could enable new types of long duration observations for Earth science, atmospheric science, and astrophysics at lower costs than current space missions. The document reviews some example science instruments and investigations that could be performed from airship platforms.
Canada has a long history of involvement in space projects through organizations like the Canadian Space Agency and MDA. Some of Canada's contributions include the Canadarm and Canadarm2 robotic arms used on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. More recently, Canada participated in projects like the Phoenix Mars Lander, Curiosity Mars Rover, and OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission by providing instruments like the MET Lidar and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. Canada is also developing next-generation robotic technologies through projects like the Next Generation Canadarm to enable on-orbit satellite servicing.
Kathy Lueders (NASA) - How Space is a Playground for InnovationTechsylvania
NASA is exploring many areas of space through partnerships with commercial companies, other space agencies, and academia. The International Space Station is enabling research across 13 major science disciplines. NASA is working with international partners on the Artemis program to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and develop sustainable lunar exploration. Future goals include establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon and preparing for human exploration of Mars. NASA is seeking to close capability gaps to achieve these exploration objectives.
NASA's technology landscape involves developing technologies to enable human space exploration and scientific discovery. Key areas include technologies for extreme environments like radiation resistance and temperature extremes. NASA also focuses on developing technologies to increase safety, productivity, and reduce costs for human spaceflight. Examples include closed-loop life support, surface mobility, and communication systems. The International Space Station is a complex of research laboratories that supports scientific research in microgravity. NASA's science, aeronautics, and space operations directorates each work to advance priority technologies through cutting-edge research partnerships.
The document proposes a two-person Mars flyby mission in 2018 with the following key details:
1) The mission would launch on January 5th, 2018 on a free return trajectory that minimizes system loads and requires low energy. It would fly within 200 miles of Mars 228 days later, allowing the first humans to view Mars up close.
2) It would utilize a Dragon spacecraft assembled in low Earth orbit from commercially available launch vehicles and equipment for under $2 billion. The spacecraft would protect the crew from radiation and maintain life support systems.
3) Extensive measures are outlined to ensure crew health and safety during the 501-day mission, including preventative healthcare, telemedicine capabilities, stress-redu
SpaceX was founded in 2002 with the goal of providing low-cost space transportation for cargo and crew. It has over 800 employees and facilities in California, Texas, and launch sites in Florida and California. SpaceX has developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Dragon spacecraft. The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that will begin flights to the International Space Station in 2010 to resupply the station under a NASA contract. The Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying pressurized cargo, experiments, or crew to orbit and returning cargo back to Earth.
1) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is transitioning from understanding cloud computing to actively working in and partnering using cloud technologies.
2) Early prototypes at JPL have shown benefits like reducing processing times from weeks to hours and allowing more scientists worldwide to access Mars rover data.
3) Moving forward, JPL will advance concepts like Cloud Readiness Levels and Cloud Oriented Architectures, transition more applications to an operational cloud model, and continue prototyping new use cases to maximize the benefits of cloud computing.
AWS Customer Presentation - NASA JPL Pervasive Cloud Now and FutureAmazon Web Services
1) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is transitioning from understanding cloud computing to actively working in and partnering using cloud technologies.
2) Early prototypes at JPL have shown benefits like reducing processing times from weeks to hours and allowing more scientists worldwide to access Mars rover data.
3) Moving forward, JPL will advance concepts like Cloud Readiness Levels and Cloud Oriented Architectures, transition more applications to an operational cloud model, and continue prototyping new use cases to maximize the benefits of cloud computing.
The document describes an autonomous underwater surveillance robot. It discusses the design and implementation of an underwater robot, including its structure, block diagram, circuit diagram, and key hardware components like the Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller board. The robot is intended to perform surveillance operations and research tasks underwater in a safe manner by replacing humans in dangerous environments. It can stream live video from its camera to a remote screen.
The document discusses a proposed technology demonstration mission to test electric sail (E-sail) propulsion. E-sails use charged tethers and solar wind to propel spacecraft without propellant. The mission would deploy 16.5 km of tether from a 12U CubeSat at Earth-Moon L1 point. Previous tether missions often failed during deployment, which is identified as the main risk. Three deployment schemes are considered, with a "barbell" design selected for analysis to assess thrusting with charged 16.5 km tethers and steering capabilities. The goal is to advance E-sail technology needed for future missions like faster travel to the Heliopause.
The International Space Station (ISS) serves as a scientific laboratory, technology test bed, and orbiting outpost for conducting research. Over 1,200 experiments have been conducted on the ISS supporting 1,600 scientists in 59 countries. This research is helping to develop the critical technologies and operational experience needed for long duration human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit to destinations like the Moon, asteroids, and Mars. The ISS also functions as a technology demonstration platform for testing exploration capabilities prior to missions farther into space. International cooperation is vital for supporting the long-term sustainability of human space exploration.
Mike Suffredini, Manager, ISS Program Office, NASA Johnson Space Center: "The Next Decade of ISS and Beyond." Presented at the 2013 International Space Station Research and Development Conference, http://www.astronautical.org/issrdc/2013.
This document discusses Teledyne Brown Engineering's space systems department and achievements. It summarizes Teledyne's history in supporting NASA missions dating back to the 1950s. It outlines Teledyne's current work on the International Space Station, including operating the Microgravity Science Glovebox and Life Science Glovebox payloads, and developing and integrating science experiments. One highlighted experiment is a 2019 tissue engineering experiment to observe protein fibril formation under shear forces. The document also mentions Teledyne's work on future vehicles like Dream Chaser and the Deep Space Gateway.
The Evolving ISS Lab: Improvements to Enable New Research & Utilizationmtnadmin
The document discusses improvements being made to enable new research and utilization of the International Space Station (ISS). It summarizes four presentations:
1. Marybeth Edeen discusses ISS integration process improvements to better support customers.
2. Ryan Prouty discusses revolutionizing ISS for science and exploration through a customer-focused culture and more efficient processes.
3. Dana Weigel outlines enhanced ISS capabilities for research, including new facilities, payloads, and vehicle upgrades.
4. Mike Read discusses fostering commerce in space through public-private partnerships and treating commercial partners as customers to stimulate demand for services in low Earth orbit.
Presentation on SpaceX given in class EC 728 - Economics of Innovation by my group. It is one of the most fascinating upcoming companies. With an IPO expected in 2013, it will be interesting to see where it heads..
This document discusses several projects being conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory to advance space situational awareness and space-based science and technology. The projects include developing software to detect gamma-ray bursts, constructing a sky map of the solar system, and sending a supercomputer into space on the Cibola Flight Experiment. The document also mentions developing sensors for the Cassini spacecraft to study Saturn and developing models to better understand radiation belts and accelerating electrons in Earth's magnetic field.
The document discusses modeling mission operations to reduce risk for NASA's Constellation Program. It begins with defining the goals of incorporating new technologies into operations while controlling risk and cost. It then discusses challenges like the need for increased automation and streamlined systems. The solution involved a collaboration between JSC and ARC to develop a simulation of shuttle operations using BRAHMS modeling tools. This prototype showed benefits like reducing time spent on mirroring tasks from over 5% to under 0.5% of a shift. The conclusions were that BRAHMS feasibility for automating complex MCC tasks was verified and could provide insights into processes while assessing risk.
1. NASA’S MARS ROVER CURIOSITY POWERED BY WIND RIVER
Could Mars Have Ever Hosted Life? Robot Explorer Seeks Answer
On August 6, 2012, NASA made an enormous advancement in space exploration when it landed
Institute Profile
the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity in the Gale Crater on Mars. Curiosity is the most
NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory technologically advanced autonomous robotic spacecraft and geologist set ever to be deployed
by any space venture. It’s on a groundbreaking mission to determine whether Mars is or has ever
Industry been capable of supporting life and to assess its habitability for future human missions.
• Space exploration Wind River®’s VxWorks® real-time operating system (RTOS) plays a central role in this historic
mission. VxWorks provides the core operating system of the spacecraft control system—from
Solutions
• Wind River VxWorks the second the rocket left Earth on November 26, 2011, until the end of the mission. NASA’s Jet
• Wind River Workbench Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system, has
• Wind River Professional used VxWorks as the mission-critical OS brain for more than two decades. The total cost of the
Services Curiosity project is approximately $2.5 billion and represents eight years of passion and work, so
the stakes are high, and a fail-proof, resilient RTOS was a core requirement.
Results
• Developed and tested the Curiosity is much larger than other rovers—approximately the size of a Mini Cooper automobile.
most technologically ad- It carries 10 times more scientific instruments than the previous Mars Exploration rovers, Spirit
vanced autonomous robotic
and Opportunity. Curiosity is more durable and explores a larger area than previous rovers. It’s
spacecraft ever launched
expected to cover 12 miles or more during its planned two-year mission.
• Directed complicated, risky
maneuvers necessary for the
mission’s success, including a THE CHALLENGE
historically challenging land- The long journey to Mars through the harsh environment of space confronted the Curiosity navi-
ing on Mars
gation team with a long list of challenges to get the craft safely to its destination. Now that it
• Compressed development
cycles by reducing the need has landed, the craft must run various science packages to gather and process samples and
for training and reusing photographs from the environment and transmit the data back to Earth.
existing code libraries from
previous missions To date, the most impressive accomplishment was completing a more precise, complex land-
• Lowered testing and qualifi- ing than any previous mission—within a 12.4-mile radius. The landing sequences, called “EDL”
cation costs by reducing the for “entry, descent, and landing,” presented the most action-packed operations aside from the
complexity of test systems initial launch.
Because Curiosity is the biggest, most capable Mars rover yet, it required a new type of landing to
reach the ground safely. In the EDL, referred to as the “seven minutes of terror,” the craft had to
“ ind River’s VxWorks is the software
W
platform that controls the execution slow down from more than 13,000 miles an hour to zero. It had to hit the atmosphere at precisely the
of all of Curiosity’s functions—from right angle, endure extreme heat, open and detach from its parachute, fire rocket engines to slow
managing avionics to collecting the descent, drop down on four cables, lock its wheels in place, and cut the cables at touchdown.
science data and sending the
experimental results back to JPL on “Wind River’s VxWorks helped manage the terror in the seven minutes of EDL, making this
Earth using satellite telemetry.” incredible feat possible,” explains Mike Deliman, senior member of the technical staff at
— IKE DELIMAN, Senior Member
M Wind River. “The role VxWorks plays during the landing process is similar to the role it plays in
of Technical Staff, Wind River the autonomous devices we use every day without knowing it’s there.”
Customer Success INNOVATORS START HERE.