Engineers at NASA needed a real-time operating system for cameras to monitor the space shuttle’s Return to Flight mission. They found a solution with Neutrino from QNX Software Systems in Ottawa, Ontario.
The software manages a laser camera system (LCS) built by Neptec, in Houston, Texas. The crew of the space shuttle Discovery used Neptec’s LCS to inspect the exterior of the shuttle during the 13-day flight. The camera is attached to a boom at the end of the shuttle’s Canadarm, and uses a scanning mechanism to generate three-dimensional maps of the shuttle’s exterior surface in real time. During the mission, NASA used the generated images to identify even the smallest amount of damage to the outside of the spacecraft.
“The LCS is a critical element of NASA’s Return to Flight mission and we have to be sure it is running on the most reliable operating system available,” said Iain Christie, vice president of research and development at Neptec. “Selecting the QNX Neutrino RTOS was an easy decision because we already know that the system can handle the extreme conditions found in space and that it meets our demands for ultrareliability. We will continue to use QNX technology in all of our real-time embedded projects.”
Neptec also used the QNX RTOS for NASA’s Advanced Space Vision System (ASVS), which helped guide the Canadarm in previous shuttle missions as well as on the International Space Station. For more information, see www.qnx.com.
