Dan Smith and Jonathan Wilmot 

Evolving Flight and Ground Data Systems for Low-Cost Development and Mission Automation 
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Building 3 Auditorium - 3:30 PM
(Refreshments at 3:00 PM)

Dan Smith and Jonathan Wilmot, will talk about Evolving Flight and Ground Data Systems for Low-Cost Development and Mission Automation. New approaches to both mission operations control center and on-board flight software systems are enabling new mission support capabilities while reducing both development and operational costs.  Dan Smith and Jonathan Wilmot will discuss standards-and message-based software architecture approaches which allow for increased automation, technology infusion over time, and the simplified integration of heritage, commercial or newly developed software.  The approaches they will discuss are already proven in other high reliability industries, are now operational on several GSFC missions, and are providing the basis for much of the new Exploration Initiative preliminary planning work.

The talk focuses on GMSEC, Goddard's new ground system architecture and on the Core Flight System (CFS), Goddard's architecture for flight software systems.

Dan Smith, Senior Engineer of Satellite Ground Systems, has 25 years of experience developing satellite ground systems for missions as diverse as Hubble Space Telescope, NOAA’s 5-satellite GOES weather satellite system, and Globalstar’s constellation of 52 commercial communications satellites. He joined NASA in 2001 and is the project manager for the Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center developing a standards- and message-based architecture now operational on multiple GSFC missions.  For the past year he has also been a member of a NASA-wide team developing common data system needs for the Exploration Initiative.  He has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and an MS degree from George Washington University (GWU) and taught software courses at both the University of Maryland and at GWU.

Jonathan Wilmot, Senior Engineer of Flight Software, has been developing embedded flight software for over 21 years. He has an extensive experience in lead technical and software systems engineering roles ranging from helicopter avionics to advanced spacecraft. He joined NASA in 1991 as a lead engineer on the Small Explorer series of spacecraft and has been developing spacecraft software systems ever since. He graduated from the University of Maryland with BS in Computer Science.

IS&T Colloquium Committee Host: Karen Moe