Space-Related Applications of Forth

Compiled by James Rash, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland

Introduction.

The following table presents space-related applications of Forth microprocessors and the Forth programming language, including

spacecraft flight system controllers
on-board payload experiment controllers
ground support systems (e.g., communications controllers and data processing systems)
hardware or software used to build or test either flight or ground systems.

Developers are requested to supply table updates and corrections, as well as information regarding relevant projects not already included, as appropriate. Please send information, comments, and suggestions to the author of this web page. Authorization for release of the information is the responsibility of the contributor.

A "+" marked in the left column indicate that the item is new or updated since the last version.

Please notify the author concerning any non functional URLs, links, or contact information in the table.

Further information on Forth, including the ANSI standard (ANS Forth):

Notice: Nothing appearing in these pages is to be construed as an endorsement by NASA. The information may be changed or withdrawn at any time without notice. The author has obtained the information from sources believed to be reliable, and has attempted to ensure accuracy, but makes no guarantees or representations of any kind. Copying, using, and distributing the table is authorized, provided it is kept intact, properly attributed, and accompanied by this Notice.

DEVELOPER	MISSION	DESCRIPTION	FURTHER INFORMATION (note: remove blanks from email addresses given below)
+Baja Technology L.L.C.	IMAGE (launched March 2000)	Controller for the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) instrument, using Harris RTX2010 Forth microprocessor	Jianxin Chen -- jchen@ baja.uric.arizona.edu
+Baja Technology L.L.C.	ROSETTA (awaiting launch as of April 2003)	Controller for the Ion and Electron Sensor instrument, using Harris RTX2010 Forth microprocessor	Jianxin Chen -- jchen@ baja.uric.arizona.edu
+Baja Technology L.L.C.	Deep Impact (in development as of April 2003)	Controller for the Avionics & Control (AOC) system, using Harris RTX2010 Forth microprocessor	Jianxin Chen -- jchen@ baja.uric.arizona.edu
Ball Aerospace (click on "Aerospace" link)	Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)	Star Scanner instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Advanced X-Ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF)	Software to control the Science Instrument selection and focus mechanisms, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Advanced X-Ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF)	Software to operate precision CCD Aspect Camera, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Earth Observing System (EOS)	Scanning mirror controller for the Thermal Imaging Radiometer (TIR), using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Midcourse Sensor Experiment (MSX) - SDIO	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Military aircraft	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Miniature Seeker Technology Integration (MSTI)	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	SAGE (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) III	CCD Controller Software, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor	Randal Vanvalkenburg at NASA/Langley: r.l.vanvalkenburg@ larc.nasa.gov
Ball Aerospace	Shuttle	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
Ball Aerospace	X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE)	Star Tracker instrument & control software, using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	Advance Composition Explorer (ACE)	Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) instrument controller hardware (RTX2010) and software in Forth	Walter Cook at wrc@ thor.srl.caltech.edu
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	Advance Composition Explorer (ACE)	Solar IsotopeSpectrometer (SIS) instrument controller hardware (RTX2010) and software in Forth	Walter Cook at wrc@ thor.srl.caltech.edu
+Forth, Inc.	USAF Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS)	Position encoder implemented with SwiftX cross compiler on Harris RTX-2010 Forth microprocessor	Elizabeth Rather -- erather@ forth.com
Innovatia Laboratories	NASA & USAF tropospheric research balloons	Telemetry system using Innovatia MC1 microcontroller running Forth-83	Dennis L. Feucht at dfeucht@ toolcity.net
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL)	USAF DMSP	Magnetometer instrument control
JHU/APL	USAF DMSP	Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI), 5 missions over 15 years using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
JHU/APL	Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite	ULEIS (Ultra Low Energy Isotope Spectrometer), using embedded Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
JHU/APL	CASSINI spacecraft	Magnetospheric Imager (MIMI) using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
JHU/APL	HILAT	Magnetometer instrument control
JHU/APL	Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT)	Instrument control, on-line data analysis, telemetry
JHU/APL	MAGSAT	Attitude Control Processor
JHU/APL	"Polar Bear" (Polar Beacon & Auroral Research Satellite)	Magnetometer instrument control
JHU/APL	US Navy LONARS High precision navigation receiver using Loran-C	Real time data processing & sensor control software
JHU/APL	Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)	Command & Telemetry Processor, Multi-Spectral Imaging System, Infrared Spectrograph and Magnetometer, X-ray/Gamma-ray Spectrometer, and Laser Rangefinder, all using the Harris RTX 2010RH Forth microprocessor
Los Alamos National Laboratory	Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite	Solar wind data processing unit, using Harris RTX 2010 Forth microprocessor
McDonnell Douglas	Shuttle - Electrophoresis Operations in Space (1986)	Pharmaceutical purification process control software	Robert Wood at rwood@ mdc.com
McGill University	International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) (Shuttle mission STS-42)	Space Adaptation Syndrom Experiment management and data acquisition for four out of seven life science experiments	Luc Lefebvre at lefebvre@ medcor.mcgill.ca
NASA/GSFC	Compatibility Test Van (CTV)	Dual channel PCM simulator system software
NASA/GSFC	Compatibility Test Van (CTV): Landsat, HST, GRO, COBE, UARS, etc., Wallops, Data Evaluation Lab	Programmable Data Formatter III system software
NASA/GSFC	CRAF/CASSINI	MASSACQ Flight Instrument Test/Calibration System
NASA/GSFC	Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY)	Command and data acquisition system written in Forth	Mark Yarbrough at yarbrough@ mlml.calstate.edu
NASA/GSFC	Massively Parallel Processor (MPP)	Image processing software
NASA/GSFC	NCC Mission Operations Support Area (MOSA)	ITR (Intelligent Transmitter/Receiver) -- Interface board for MOSA (formerly Mini-NOCC) Front End	Thomas Sardella at Tom.Sardella@ nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC	Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (SSBUV) ozone calibration instrument with 8 successful Shuttle bay flights	Small Payload Accommodation Module (SPAM) interface controller software written in Forth	Bob Caffrey at Robert.T.Caffrey@ nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC	Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (SSBUV)	Instrument Interface Electronics Module (IIEM) software written in Forth	John T. (Tom) Riley at Tom.Riley@ nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC	Shuttle Ozone Limb Sounder Experiment (SOLSE)	A "Hitchhiker Junior", to fly summer '97 -- instrument controller written in Forth	(ditto)
NASA/GSFC	Limb Ozone Retrieval Experiment (LORE)	A small independent instrument within SOLSE -- instrument controller written in Forth	(ditto)
NASA/GSFC	Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) on Space Shuttle Astro-2 mission	Dedicated Experiment Processor (DEP) written in Forth	Peter Chen at chen@ uit.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC	Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) (Lewis Research Center/TRW)	Goddard Electronics Module (GEM) data acquisition processor using Harris RTX-2010	Jay T. Miller at jay.t.miller.1@ gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC	ACE (JHU/APL)	Spacecraft Loads & Acoustic Monitor (SLAM) simultaneous data acquisition and downlink subsystem using Harris RTX-2010	(ditto)
NASA/GSFC	Wideband Transport Frame Formatter (WTFF)	Virtual channel processor & system controller for the Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) Testbed using Harris RTX 2000 Forth microprocessor	Jose Bentancort at Jose@ tsi-telsys.com
NASA/JSC	Shuttle, IML-1	Krug Life Sciences Microgravity Vestibular Investigations
NASA/JPL	Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-B)	Command & control software
NASA	TOPEX	Portion of Ground Support Equipment software
+NSI	Globalstar, Thuraya, Iridium, ICO, Astrolink, various NASA missions including SWAS (Sub millimeter wave astronomy satellite), Space Shuttle Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and Rosetta (comet probe)	Microwave nearfield antenna testing of spacecraft antennas	www.nearfield.com Dan Slater <dslater@ ix.netcom.com>
Orbital Sciences Corporation	ORBCOMM Experimental Package OXP-1 on Pegasus	Flight & experiment software
Orbital Sciences Corporation	ORBCOMM Experimental Package OXP-1 on Pegasus	Flight & experiment software
Orbital Sciences Corporation (formerly Fairchild Space & Defense)	USAF Multimission Modular Spacecraft (MMS)	Multiplex Data Bus Monitor/Recorder test equipment using Harris RTX2000 microprocessor and firmware written in Forth	Mark A. Mowen at markmowen@ fsd.com
Orbital Sciences Corporation	ORBCOMM-X	Telemetry, flight control support
Orbital Sciences Corporation	USAF APEX	Data management and power control software
Orbital Sciences Corporation	SeaStar	Sea WiFs data management and power control software
Orbital Sciences Corporation/Hercules	Pegasus	Telemetry & flight control
Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT-DL (Germany))	AMSAT OSCAR 10, OSCAR 13, OSCAR 21, and (in development) Phase 3-D amateur radio satellites	Integrated Housekeeping Unit (including navigation, attitude control, telemetry and telecommand tracking, payload control, power management, health & safety, and propulsion control) and Ground Support Equipment, all using the Forth-like language IPS (Interpreter for Process Structures). OSCAR 21 used the Harris RTX2000 microprocessor.
Swedish Space Corp./JHU/APL	Freja	Magnetometer experiment control	Lawrence Zanetti at zanetti@ jhuapl.edu
University of California	Galileo	Magnetic Field Experiment instrument control
University of Wisconsin	Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE)	Instrument control
US Navy	SPINSAT	Portion of ground support equipment software
USSR	Baikonur Cosmodrome	Telemetry data analysis & retrieval workstations
Vertex Communications Corporation	Satellite earthstation antenna systems	7210 Monopulse Antenna Control System on Motorola 68030 platform	sales@ vcsd.com

Last revised: 14 April 2003

*--- Contact information regarding this web site ---*
	Name	Phone	Code
Responsible NASA official	Julie Loftis	301-286-5049	588
Curator & technical contact	James Rash (james.l.rash @ nasa.gov)	301-286-5246	588

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