Space Related Applications of Forth

Space-Related Applications of Forth

Compiled by James Rash, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland

Introduction.

The following table presents space-related applications of Forth microprocessors and the Forth programming language, including

• spacecraft flight system controllers
• on-board payload experiment controllers
• ground support systems (e.g., communications controllers and data processing systems)
• hardware or software used to build or test either flight or ground systems.

Developers are requested to supply table updates and corrections, as well as information regarding relevant projects not already included, as appropriate. Please send information, comments, and suggestions to the author of this web page. Authorization for release of the information is the responsibility of the contributor.

Please notify the author concerning any non functional URLs, links, or contact information in the table.

Further information on Forth, including the ANSI standard (ANS Forth):

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Notice:

Nothing appearing in these pages is to be construed as an endorsement by NASA. The information may be changed or withdrawn at any time without notice. The author has obtained the information from sources believed to be reliable, and has attempted to ensure accuracy, but makes no guarantees or representations of any kind. Copying, using, and distributing the table is authorized, provided it is kept intact, properly attributed, and accompanied by this Notice. DEVELOPER

MISSION

DESCRIPTION

FURTHER INFORMATION 
(note: remove blanks from email addresses given below) Ball Aerospace (click on "Aerospace" link)

Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)

Star Scanner instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor

  Ball Aerospace 

Advanced X-Ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF)

Software to control the Science Instrument selection and focus mechanisms, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor

  Ball Aerospace 

Advanced X-Ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF)

Software to operate precision CCD Aspect Camera, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor

  Ball Aerospace 

Earth Observing System (EOS)

Scanning mirror controller for the Thermal Imaging Radiometer (TIR), using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

Midcourse Sensor Experiment (MSX) - SDIO

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

Military aircraft

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

Miniature Seeker Technology Integration (MSTI)

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

Shuttle

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  Ball Aerospace 

X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE)

Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

  California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Advance Composition Explorer (ACE)

Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) instrument controller hardware (RTX2010) and software in Forth

Walter Cook at wrc@ thor.srl.caltech.edu California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Advance Composition Explorer (ACE)

Solar IsotopeSpectrometer (SIS) instrument controller hardware (RTX2010) and software in Forth

Walter Cook at wrc@ thor.srl.caltech.edu Innovatia Laboratories

NASA & USAF tropospheric research balloons

Telemetry system using Innovatia MC1 microcontroller running Forth-83

Dennis L. Feucht at dfeucht@ toolcity.net Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL)

USAF DMSP

Magnetometer instrument control

  JHU/APL

USAF DMSP

Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI), 5 missions over 15 years using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor 

  JHU/APL

Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite

ULEIS (Ultra Low Energy Isotope Spectrometer), using embedded Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor 

  JHU/APL

CASSINI spacecraft

Magnetospheric Imager (MIMI) using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor 

  JHU/APL

HILAT

Magnetometer instrument control 

  JHU/APL

Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT)

Instrument control, on-line data analysis, telemetry 

  JHU/APL

MAGSAT

Attitude Control Processor 

  JHU/APL

"Polar Bear" (Polar Beacon & Auroral Research Satellite)

Magnetometer instrument control 

  JHU/APL

US Navy LONARS High precision navigation receiver using Loran-C

Real time data processing & sensor control software 

  JHU/APL

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)

Command & Telemetry Processor, 
Multi-Spectral Imaging System, 
Infrared Spectrograph and Magnetometer, 
X-ray/Gamma-ray Spectrometer, and 
Laser Rangefinder, all using the Harris RTX 2010RH Forth microprocessor 

  Los Alamos National Laboratory

Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite

Solar wind data processing unit, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor 

  McDonnell Douglas

Shuttle - Electrophoresis Operations in Space (1986)

Pharmaceutical purification process control software 

Robert Wood at rwood@ mdc.com McGill University

International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) (Shuttle mission STS-42) 

Space Adaptation Syndrom Experiment management and data acquisition for four out of seven life science experiments 

Luc Lefebvre at lefebvre@ medcor.mcgill.ca NASA/GSFC

Compatibility Test Van (CTV)

Dual channel PCM simulator system software 

  NASA/GSFC

Compatibility Test Van (CTV): Landsat, HST, GRO, COBE, UARS, etc., Wallops, Data Evaluation Lab

Programmable Data Formatter III system software 

  NASA/GSFC

CRAF/CASSINI

MASSACQ Flight Instrument Test/Calibration System 

  NASA/GSFC

Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY)

Command and data acquisition system written in Forth

Mark Yarbrough at yarbrough@ mlml.calstate.edu NASA/GSFC

Massively Parallel Processor (MPP)

Image processing software

  NASA/GSFC

NCC Mission Operations Support Area (MOSA)

ITR (Intelligent Transmitter/Receiver) -- Interface board for MOSA (formerly Mini-NOCC) Front End

Thomas Sardella at Thomas.E.Sardella.1@ gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC

Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (SSBUV) ozone calibration instrument with 8 successful Shuttle bay flights

Small Payload Accommodation Module (SPAM) interface controller software written in Forth

Bob Caffrey at Robert.T.Caffrey.1@ gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC

Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (SSBUV)

Instrument Interface Electronics Module (IIEM) software written in Forth

John T. (Tom) Riley at john.t.riley.1@ gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC

Shuttle Ozone Limb Sounder Experiment (SOLSE)

A "Hitchhiker Junior", to fly summer '97 -- instrument controller written in Forth

(ditto)

NASA/GSFC

Limb Ozone Retrieval Experiment (LORE)

A small independent instrument within SOLSE -- instrument controller written in Forth

(ditto)

NASA/GSFC

Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) on Space Shuttle Astro-2 mission

Dedicated Experiment Processor (DEP) written in Forth

Peter Chen at chen@ uit.gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC

Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) (Lewis Research Center/TRW)

Goddard Electronics Module (GEM) data acquisition processor using Harris RTX-2010

Jay T. Miller at jay.t.miller.1@ gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC

ACE (JHU/APL)

Spacecraft Loads & Acoustic Monitor (SLAM) simultaneous data acquisition and downlink subsystem using Harris RTX-2010

(ditto)

NASA/GSFC

Wideband Transport Frame Formatter (WTFF)

Virtual channel processor & system controller for the Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) Testbed using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor 

Jose Bentancort at Jose@ tsi-telsys.com NASA/JSC

Shuttle, IML-1

Krug Life Sciences Microgravity Vestibular Investigations 

  NASA/JPL

Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-B)

Command & control software 

  NASA

TOPEX

Portion of Ground Support Equipment software 

  Orbital Sciences Corporation

ORBCOMM Experimental Package OXP-1 on Pegasus

Flight & experiment software 

  Orbital Sciences Corporation

ORBCOMM Experimental Package OXP-1 on Pegasus

Flight & experiment software 

  Orbital Sciences Corporation (formerly Fairchild Space & Defense)

USAF Multimission Modular Spacecraft (MMS)

Multiplex Data Bus Monitor/Recorder test equipment using Harris RTX2000 microprocessor and firmware written in Forth

Mark A. Mowen at markmowen@ fsd.com Orbital Sciences Corporation

ORBCOMM-X

Telemetry, flight control support 

  Orbital Sciences Corporation

USAF APEX

Data management and power control software 

  Orbital Sciences Corporation

SeaStar

Sea WiFs data management and power control software 

  Orbital Sciences Corporation/Hercules

Pegasus

Telemetry & flight control 

  Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT-DL (Germany))

AMSAT OSCAR 10, OSCAR 13, OSCAR 21, and (in development) Phase 3-D amateur radio satellites 

Integrated Housekeeping Unit (including navigation, attitude control, telemetry and telecommand tracking, payload control, power management, health & safety, and propulsion control) and Ground Support Equipment, all using the Forth-like language IPS (Interpreter for Process Structures). OSCAR 21 used the Harris RTX2000 microprocessor. 

  Swedish Space Corp./JHU/APL

Freja

Magnetometer experiment control 

Lawrence Zanetti at zanetti@ jhuapl.edu University of California

Galileo

Magnetic Field Experiment instrument control

  University of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) 

Instrument control 

  US Navy

SPINSAT

Portion of ground support equipment software 

  USSR 

Baikonur Cosmodrome 

Telemetry data analysis & retrieval workstations 

  Vertex Communications Corporation

Satellite earthstation antenna systems

7210 Monopulse Antenna Control System on Motorola 68030 platform

sales@ vcsd.com Last revised: 22 October 1998 Name

Mail 
Code Responsible management official

Julie Breed

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Author

James Rash at james.rash@ gsfc.nasa.gov

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http://forth.gsfc.nasa.gov

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