COTS ground system software aids NASA
NASA officials are cutting the number of people necessary to track low-earth-orbit satellites and boosting the capability of their ground systems with the aid of a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software package called Epoch 2000 from Integral Systems Inc. of Lanham, Md.
Steven Bundick, a NASA engineer with the Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility says Epoch 2000 provides several satellite command and control functions, including launch control and monitoring and on-orbit operations support.
Integrating the Unix-based Epoch 2000 software into a ground system called LEO-T for Low Earth Orbit Terminal will be engineers from AlliedSignal of Columbia, Md. The LEO-T ground systems will be installed at NASA facilities at Wallops Island, Va., and in Fairbanks, Alaska, later this year.
"The big improvement in the system is the automation," Bundick says. "Our statement of work required the system to operate unmanned." The Epoch 2000 software will generate its own schedule for monitoring low-earth orbit satellites, and automate other satellite monitoring functions that formerly required a NASA satellite tracking specialist`s attention. "We pushed COTS equipment heavily, to keep costs down and give better reliability," Bundick adds. -W.D.
For more information, contact Integral Systems by phone at 301-731-4233, by fax at 301-731-9606, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.integ.com/.
