Modular software components for early integration and exploration of components developed for future European Space Agency missions

During recent years European space research has increased, launching satellite missions such as Mars
Express, Rosetta, Venus Express, among others. As part of a developing project called Cosmic Vision
and to answer its first theme, “What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of
life?”, the EChO (Exoplanet Characterization Observatory, sci.esa.int/echo/) mission is created to
characterize atmospheres of planets outside the solar system and determine if there are suitable
conditions for life in them. Our project, part of EChO, consists in developing simulators for data-
processing systems in order to integrate and explore early different equipments used in the
development of instruments and components required for the mission. For this, we used a FPGA (Field
Programmable Gate Array) board with the RTEMS (Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems)
Operating System loaded into the board to simulate a real micro-controller. Before doing so, many of
the high-level software functionalities are going to be programmed in Java. These are to be done as
independent modules that include a flexible command interpreter, a housekeeper and a serial
communication module capable of sending/receiving data. Upon completion of these modules, they
will be manually translated into C++ so they can be compiled for use on the RTEMS OS. Because of
some technical problems with the FPGA, we are to perform testing using a simulated environment for
the RTEMS OS complete with working network ports. If successful, those modules lay the foundation
for future development of equipment that will operate the mission's instruments and components.