SpaceWASM

About this technology

Overview

Command sequences drive many of our spacecraft's higher level behaviors. The nature of a command sequence allows an operator to change the behavior of a spacecraft without changing its flight-software which would impose a much greater validation cost. Sequences running on the same flight-software can be easily validated in simulation or testbed with fast turnaround. In space, sequences can be used to point the spacecraft or collect observations. On the surface, sequences are used to direct the mobility and planning systems as well as schedule activities such as instrument observations. In the past, command sequences have had very limited capabilities. Only commands with predetermined arguments and limited control flow (if/else etc) could be utilized. Due to these limitations it is often necessary to provide additional tooling around sequences to "generate" sequences or provide additional on-board capabilities in flight-software to model more complex behaviors that would otherwise not be able to be modeled in a sequence. In this work we prototype a generally capable sequencing paradigm which can utilize a large ecosystem of industrial grade tooling.