Design of Microcontroller Software for a Satellite-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Experiment

Abstract

The Naval Postgraduate School's Space Systems Academic Group is developing a satellite-based experiment to evaluate the electrical properties of ferroelectric capacitors under high levels of ionizing particle radiation. The experiment, called FERRO, is one of three experiments that comprise the APEX mission. The Apex mission is sponsored by the joint Space Test Program and will be launched in early 1993. The main processor for FERRO is an Intel 8OC196KB 16- bit embedded controller that will perform all aspects of experiment control, data acquisition, and communication with the host satellite processor. The design of systems and communications software to support the experiment is presented. Functional areas addressed by the design include: microcontroller and peripheral initialization; communication between the experiment and spacecraft processors; fault detection/recovery; recovery from loss of power and development of an IBM PC based program to provide for preflight verification and testing of experiment hardware and software.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA257960

Entities

People

  • Terry G. Tutt

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Capacitors
  • Circuits
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Content Addressable Memory
  • Detection
  • Electrical Properties
  • Engineering
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Radiation
  • Software Development
  • Space Systems
  • Spacecraft

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computer Science.
  • Software Engineering
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites