Visualization of a Spacecraft Mission Software System

A Spacecraft Mission Software System (SMSS) consists of both ground and flight software working cohesively to perform failure-free and reliable spacecraft operations in order to meet critical NASA or Department of Defense mission objectives. Visualization of all interdependencies of system components provides a means for assessment and detection of problems that can lead to a potential failure of the SMSS. When a spacecraft operation anomaly does occur, a quick assessment and isolation of the problem (software or hardware) and its impact on the mission are necessary to form a strategy to keep the spacecraft safe and to meet mission objectives. An interactive approach to drill down the visualization of spacecraft operations to the subsystem and component level yields an efficient way to determine the root cause. The visualization of the spacecraft operations can determine if the root cause is due to an actual failure in the flight or ground software system, or if the root cause is related to a system-level component contributing to a software failure. The Embedded Applications Group at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory researched the use of visualization of spacecraft operations as part of an Internal Research and Development (IRAD) project. As a result of the IRAD, a visualization software prototype referred to as System Insight was developed to monitor spacecraft operations using NASA's Van Allen Probes mission. The paper will discuss the layered visualization design implemented in the System Insight software. Elaboration on the Van Allen Probes SMSS will be presented along with examples of how System Insight can be used by software engineers and mission operators to visually identify functional problems in the SMSS. The paper will conclude with a brief discussion on the plans for future work and potential use of System Insight.