Embedded Software Design for the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment Generic Nanosatellite Bus

• Main Author: Dwyer, Mark
• Other Authors: Zee, Robert E.
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Embedded Software; GNB; 0538
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/18941

The Space Flight Lab (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) has developed an ambitious satellite program called the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX). The newest generation of CanX missions are based on the Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB). This bus was designed to accommodate many missions using a single, common platform. Currently, there are three nanosatellite missions using the GNB design. These missions include AISSat-1, CanX-3 (BRITE) and CanX-4&5. This thesis describes the high level embedded software design for the on-board computer (OBC), as part of the generic nanosatellite bus. The software discussed includes the Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) Thread, Serial Communications Controller (SCC) Thread, Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) Thread, Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) Thread, Communications Thread, Memory Management Thread, Power Thread, House Keeping Computer (HKC) Thread, AISSat-1 Payload Thread and the Time Tag Thread. In addition to the application threads mentioned above, the software design and validation of the On Board Computer (OBC) design for the AISSat-1 mission is also discussed.