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.

A "+" marked in the left column indicate that the item is new or updated since the last version.

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):

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 The information may be changed or withdrawn at any time without notice.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) +Baja Technology L.L.C. IMAGE (launched March 2000) Controller for the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) instrument, using Harris RTX2010 Forth microprocessor Jianxin Chen -- jchen@

baja.uric.arizona.edu +Baja Technology L.L.C. ROSETTA (awaiting launch as of April 2003) Controller for the Ion and Electron Sensor instrument, using Harris RTX2010 Forth microprocessor Jianxin Chen -- jchen@

baja.uric.arizona.edu +Baja Technology L.L.C. Deep Impact (in development as of April 2003) Controller for the Avionics & Control (AOC) system, using Harris RTX2010 Forth microprocessor Jianxin Chen -- jchen@

baja.uric.arizona.edu 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 SAGE (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) III CCD Controller Software, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor Randal Vanvalkenburg at NASA/Langley: r.l.vanvalkenburg@ larc.nasa.gov 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 +Forth, Inc. USAF Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Position encoder implemented with SwiftX

cross compiler on Harris RTX-2010 Forth microprocessor Elizabeth Rather -- erather@ forth.com 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 Tom.Sardella@ 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@ nasa.gov NASA/GSFC Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (SSBUV) Instrument Interface Electronics Module (IIEM) software written in Forth John T. (Tom) Riley at Tom.Riley@ 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 +NSI Globalstar, Thuraya, Iridium, ICO, Astrolink, various NASA missions including SWAS (Sub millimeter wave astronomy satellite), Space Shuttle Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and Rosetta (comet probe) Microwave nearfield antenna

testing of spacecraft antennas www.nearfield.com

Dan Slater <dslater@ ix.netcom.com> 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

--- Contact information regarding this web site --- Name Phone Code Responsible NASA official Julie Loftis 301-286-5049 588 Curator & technical contact James Rash (james.l.rash @ nasa.gov) 301-286-5246 588

http://forth.gsfc.nasa.gov/