An eCos based flight software for a nanosatellite
Date
2009-03
Authors
Mthembu, Sifiso Selby
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
The nanosatellite is build-up of subsystems and payloads (defined as satellite nodes)
connected together into the OBC using CAN bus as the main communication protocol.
The flight software application is required to run within the eCos environment on the
OBC to monitor and control satellite nodes.
The ground station must generate commands and send them to the satellite in space.
The application is developed to validate, schedule and dispatch the commands to the
satellite nodes at appropriate times. Each node manager, in the flight software, is
required to execute the response messages from its respective satellite node. The
housekeeping and error recovery data files are defined to convey useful information
about satellite status to the user and can be downloaded to the ground station.
The flight software is developed using POSIX functions supported by eCos. Although
it is not yet ready for real operation in space, the algorithm that can be used for full
development is examined and approved.
Description
Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
Keywords
Nanosatellites -- Control systems, Dissertations -- Electronic engineering, Theses -- Electronic engineering