Once again it has been a while since anyone has posted to this blog. Once again, that does not reflect a lack of activity in our projects, as much as a lack of committment to keeping this blog up to date. Here I will review some of the things that have happened since the last update.
We are no longer working on the IceCube project mentioned in the previous post. While I believe that project is still active, the software development for it has been moved to Goddard Space Flight Center, as far as I know.
We have started a project implementing the JT65 communications protocol in SPARK with the intention of providing a CubedOS module that supports it. JT65 allows a low bandwidth signal to be received with very low reception strength. It has the potential of enabling some level of deep space (i. e. interplantary) CubeSat communications using relatively modest radio equipment on both ends of connection.
We are looking into implementing some subset of the DTN protocols (again in SPARK) for use with CubedOS. Our goal here is to be interoperable with ION, and implementation of the DTN protocols created by NASA. Our work would have the benefit of being verified by the SPARK tools to be free of runtime error (or more). This work is in preparation of implementing some sort of distributed CubeSat demonstration, perhaps in collaboration with the University of Vermont.
We are thinking about creating a CubedOS/CFS bridge that would allow CubedOS to interoperate with NASA's CFS. Users of CFS could then incrementally use CubedOS, perhaps for mission critical functions (due to CubedOS's verification properties), while retaining their investment in CFS.
We are looking forward to making progress on these projects in the coming months. Hopefully we will be able to maintain this blog more regularly so that interested parties can follow the work.
