Incorporating modern development and evaluation techniques into the creation of large-scale, spacecraft control software

One of the major challenges facing the development of today's safety- and mission-critical space systems involves the construction of software to support the goals and objectives of these missions, especially those associated with NASA's Space Exploration Initiative, which has now become the focus of the US Space Program and its contractors. Consequently, the software used to implement much of the functionality in the various flight vehicles and ground facilities must be given special consideration. This dissertation outlines a new approach to spacecraft software development that focuses on incorporating modem software engineering techniques into the spacecraft domain including (1) a product-line approach to the software development enterprise and (2) a software architecture-centric design process to support that approach. The new product-line approach is demonstrated through its application to the Exploration Initiative. The technical and managerial aspects of the product line, which are required to successfully field the line, are described in detail. Among the technical artifacts developed to support the line, the software architecture is the most important.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Weiss, Kathryn Anne, 1979-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nancy G. Leveson.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/35591
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/35591

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35591