Supporting deep space missions_

A global aerospace organisation was planning a mission that would launch spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system - to carry out scientific research over several years.

To prepare the spacecraft for this mission, the organisation needed to develop flight software modules that would provide control over the many vital onboard instruments and equipment during the course of the journey. This included antenna, solar arrays, reaction wheels, chemical propulsion subsystem and much more. 

To meet space industry software standards, however, they needed to enlist the support of an external software partner to help develop and test the modules that would sustain the spacecraft’s functionality throughout its life.

Mobica were selected to act as a subcontracting development organization, due to our extensive expertise in low level programming and embedded systems.

During the project the Mobica team took responsibility for developing key components that would allow our customer to communicate with various onboard devices. We also integrated these components with the central flight software system and platform equipment. 

We were also responsible for designing, developing and executing verification and validation tests using the customer’s proprietary software validation facility. This included the use of a spacecraft simulator and checkout system.

The aerospace organisation gained access to a skilled development team that could ensure they remained compliant with several specific engineering and space industry standards, including the European ECSS standards suite.

Our development expertise in real-time embedded systems also helped our customer to successfully complete the project in accordance with their own workload schedule.