The Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) Project Spacecraft Flight Software controls all aspects of command and data handling (CDH) in the SMAP spacecraft. Required capabilities include uplink and command, telemetry and downlink, vehicle attitude control, science instrument control, onboard science data storage and downlink, spacecraft deployments, and spacecraft fault detection and response.

This flight software has been improved over previous versions in that its fault protection incorporates many different behaviors that allow it to run in a “single string” configuration. This is different and challenging in that the fault protection has to handle faults more fully and continue operating in case of a serious fault, rather than switching to another computer hardware string and a fresh, possibly different flight load of software.

This work was done by Thomas J. Fouser, David S. Hecox, Hyejung Yun, Shang-Wen Cheng, Jay M. Brown, Edward G. Benowitz, Mohammad Shahabuddin, Robert M. Nowicki, Muh-Wang Yang, Yan Brenman, Christopher G. Jones, Martin S. Gilbert, Cindy H. Oda, Henley D. Morgan, Hanry Hartounian, Gorang C. Gandhi, James E. Hofman, Quy Q. Ho, Prashanth Pandian, and Boris D. Shenker of Caltech; and Antonio Diaz-Calderon, Robert Davis, and Jonathan Green of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This software is available for license through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and you may request a license here . NPO-49358