Flight Software

3 Credits.

This survey course reviews the architectures, designs, and implementations of spacecraft flight software systems. The course provides an overview of typical command and data handling software functions and the open-source tools, frameworks, and applications that can implement them. A semester-long programming assignment is provided to build a working flight software system. Special topics include application to resource-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, spacecraft security, and space-based networking. Flight software encompasses the complete set of computer instructions running on every processor on a spacecraft.