Category: Show News

Wind River VxWorks Lands on Mars (Again) with NASA’s Insight Spacecraft

Wind River is proud to announce that today NASA’s InSight Mars Lander, with the help of its VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS), reached a historical milestone in its journey to Mars; InSight made its 12,300mph descent to the red planet with a successful landing. With the Insight lander’s avionics system based on VxWorks, this NASA mission brings the Wind River RTOS back to Mars once again following the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity mission in 2012. Now on Mars, InSight will be conducting science operations to gather data on how the planet formed, until Nov. 24, 2020 (which equates to one year and 40 days on Mars, or nearly two Earth years).

For more than two decades, Wind River has provided NASA with technology that has taken dozens of unmanned systems to space, playing a critical role in some of the most significant space missions in history, advancing our understanding of the world and beyond. For more information on Wind River’s work with NASA click here.

Entry, Descent and Landing

In space, the margin for error is essentially zero. Complex automated maneuvers, such as the landing of a vehicle on a planet’s surface, require highly accurate positioning, pointing, and synchronization. Systems and devices on board spacecraft must be able to communicate with each other, as well as with mission control systems on earth.

Referred to as “the seven minutes of terror,” the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) began about 80 miles (about 128 kilometers) above the surface, and ended with the lander safe and sound on the surface of Mars seven minutes later. Mars’ atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s, so this guided entry and descent remains an engineering feat. While landing, the system had to react with sub-millisecond precision making adjustments based on real-time readings. This is where VxWorks’ determinism was mission critical. Wind River software delivers the intelligence that enables unmanned systems to perform with determinism, precision, and reliability. Here is a simulation of the EDL.

Another Important Milestone for Technology

VxWorks is the industry-leading RTOS powering a variety of unmanned and autonomous systems that aim to achieve the highest levels of safety and cost-effectiveness in their pursuit of invaluable data. VxWorks is powering the computing resources and automation underlying numerous critical space missions, including the space station resupply vessel Cygnus, Juno, the Mars Curiosity Rover, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the groundbreaking Deep Space I, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2, the Global Precipitation Measurement project and many more. It was VxWorks that made possible the precision entry of an autonomous satellite into Jupiter’s orbit – Juno – in 2016.

Driving cost efficiency by including commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies like VxWorks whenever possible in the spacecraft design, allows for a low-cost, rapid-prototyping approach, as well as managing the overall cost of the system.

The End of a Long Trip

InSight was launched on May 5, 2018 by NASA, using a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The lander completed its 300-million-mile trip at 11:54am PT/2:54pm ET. InSight will be the first mission to directly study the deep interior of a planet other than Earth, providing invaluable data, including information regarding how our own planet has formed.

Insight is another great example of how unmanned space missions serve the scientific community and advance human understanding in numerous ways. Wind River is honored to work with NASA and congratulates them on another successful space mission.

*Images courtesy of NASA/JPL

Wind River Brings VxWorks Safety Portfolio to NXP Platforms

Wind River announced expanded VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) support for leading NXP platforms, including NXP i.MX 8 and NXP QorIQ T2080 and T2081 multi-core platforms. This comes in addition to NXP’s already supported Layerscape family, including the LS1021A, LS1043A, and LS1046A. With these updates, Wind River says it continues to demonstrate its commitment to enabling the affordable development of safe and secure systems on the latest Arm and Power Architecture processors from NXP.

Wind River says their commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms make it easier and more cost- effective for technology suppliers to meet the stringent safety certification requirements of RTCA DO-178C, EUROCAE ED-12C, EN 50128, and IEC 61508. They include:

  • VxWorks 653 Multi-core Edition, an integrated modular avionics (IMA) platform enabling workload consolidation of safety-critical and less-critical applications sharing a common computer platform, has been validated and provides COTS certification artifacts for the QorIQ T2080 from NXP.
  • VxWorks Cert Edition, a platform for safety-critical applications that require RTCA DO-178, EUROCAE ED-12, or IEC 61508 certification evidence in the avionics, transportation, industrial automation, and medical device industries, has been validated on the i.MX 6 SABRE Lite from NXP.

    VxWorks is now available on the latest NXP i.MX 8 platform, the QorIQ T2081 multi-core platform, and the LS1 and LS2 products including LS1043 and LS1046.

    “Avionics, transportation, industrial automation, and medical industries require proven and safety-certified solutions,” said Noy Kucuk, vice president of Product Management, NXP Semiconductor. “We are pleased to support Wind River’s VxWorks COTS safety platforms with our Arm and Power Architecture processors. We also recognize that customers require an ongoing supply of our processors; NXP, therefore, has extended the production life of select QorIQ P Series and T Series processors.”

    “By working together with NXP, we can provide our mutual customers with proven and reliable choices for their technology implementations, as well as support them in their software- certification process,” said Michel Genard, vice president of Operating Environments, Wind River. “VxWorks continues to serve as the foundation that enables companies across critical infrastructure sectors to create differentiated, certifiable safety-critical systems, and Wind River is investing in and committed to providing the architectural flexibility needed by these new and innovative designs.”

SD Avionics Developing Flat Panel Antenna in Partnership with QEST

SD Avionics, the hardware manufacturing division of Satcom Direct, has partnered with QEST Quantenelektronische Systeme. to develop a new flat panel connectivity antenna for business and military aviation. The electronically steered phased-array antenna system aims to be the smallest and most efficient form factor, bringing high speed connectivity to a wider range of aircraft. SD will be the exclusive provider of this antenna to business aviation, military and government markets globally. Compatible satellite network constellations will be announced next year.

Purpose fit for small to mid-size jets, where a tail-mounted antenna solution is not an option, the lightweight, low-profile design will bring high-speed connectivity to a wide range of airframes. Scalable and modular, the flat panel system conforms to the size and shape requirements of an individual aircraft fuselage without bringing excessive weight or power requirements.

SD Avionics is working with aircraft OEMs on product specification and development, targeting product launch in late 2020. Once available, the antenna system will become part of SD Xperience, bringing future-proof technology compatible with LEO and GEO satellite networks operating in multiple frequency bands to the portfolio. The conceptual light-jet prototype was available for viewing at NBAA.

“We are committed to providing global connectivity solutions across the business aviation sector. The introduction of this flat panel antenna will enable an even greater selection of connectivity options for a wider range of platforms around the world. Our investment means more passengers, crew, and flight departments will access reliable, secure connectivity to support their day-to-day operations,” said Jim Jensen, founder and CEO of SD.

“Partnering with SD has enabled a dynamic development approach combining technical ingenuity with years of business aviation experience to help formulate a product that we know the market will welcome. We wanted to create technology to substantially improve connectivity access within the General Aviation market place and working with Satcom Direct has enabled us to do this.  We know the segment will benefit as a result,” said Dr. Joerg Oppenlaender, chief technology officer of QEST.

UMS SKELDAR and Airflite to Partner for MRO Service in Australasia

UMS SKELDAR has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airflite Pty. Ltd. to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and technical support services for the rotary unmanned UAV portfolio including the NATO-compliant flagship VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) SKELDAR V-200 and its variants. The agreement was announced at Land Forces 2018 in Adelaide (4-6 September 2018), Australia.

According to the agreement Airflite, with operations across Australia, will become a technical support partner of UMS SKELDAR, the joint venture between Saab and UMS AERO GROUP. Airflite will provide support staff and maintenance and engineering services for the rotary V-200 UAV and its variants.

Airflite’s operations include facilities at four airports and two airforce bases covering Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria providing access to MRO services across the continent for land and sea-based customers.

DAC Gets STC for EFB

DAC International (DAC), has been granted a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the GKN Aerospace-Fokker business EFB for iPad solution including DAC International’s Tablet Adapter Interface Unit (TAIU) for the Airbus A320 aircraft. The standard EFB for iPad solution offers two mounts in the cockpit and charging. As an option a free programmable one-way data connection with the ARINC-429 bus and charging is offered via DAC International’s GDC64 TAIU. This customer opted for displaying the own ship position on the iPad, derived from the aircraft Flight Management System (FMS).

“We’re really excited to be part of this STC and Fokker’s possibility to offer this to its customers worldwide. Using aircraft data on the EFB in the cockpit gives endless possibilities to improve and simplify cockpit procedures and benefit from real time data.” said Cisco Hernandez, president of DAC International.

Successful Workshop on NDT for Marine Composites

This year saw the fourth NDT requirements workshop run by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT). The Workshop on NDT Requirements for Marine Composites took place on 27 February 2018 at St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, UK.

A significant amount of non-destructive testing (NDT) is already performed on marine composites, the sector needs further support in a number of areas, including the development of NDT acceptance criteria at the design stage for manufacturing and in-service defects, guidance on appropriate NDT method and inspection process selection and new techniques for utilizing NDT results for structural integrity assessment.

The workshop brought together marine sector regulators, insurers, designers, manufacturers, constructors and operators to discuss the opportunities for, and benefits of, improved and enhanced NDT of marine composites. The academic sector was also well represented, bringing potential solutions from leading-edge research. The aim of the workshop was to generate a document capturing all NDT requirements, ‘what success looks like’ for future NDT and the link to structural integrity and risk-based inspection management.

The workshop program consisted of six key sessions including: regulator and insurer requirements; industry and user requirements; current NDT experience; future advanced NDT and structural integrity; a breakout session; and panel session.

Professionals and academics from the marine industry briefed attendees on ways that NDT could help increase the use of composites, covering subjects such as naval fleets, tidal turbine sectors, high-performance yachts, ultrasonic testing (UT), RNLI lifeboats and pulsed thermography. The programme included speakers from influential companies and organisations such as Land Rover BAR, Navalmartin Ltd, BAE Systems, AEL Airborne and Minton, Treharne & Davies, as well as educational institutions and research centres such as the University of Bristol, the Defence Academy of UK, the National Composites Centre and the University of Southampton.

Presentations from this workshop are available to download from the BINDT website, http://www.bindt.org/events/PastEvents/marine-composites-workshop-2018-closed/, where the final report will also be made available.

The next NDT requirements workshop, in 2019, will be focused on the wind power sector.

PCB’s Adds High Temperature Accelerometer

PCB Piezotronic’s new accelerometer, Model HTJ356B01 is suited for applications that demand ground isolation to reduce electrical noise and ground loops on test articles in higher temperature environments . This design achieves the ground isolation through the attachment of the accelerometer to a three sided titanium cup that contains an insulating glass filled epoxy. This model has high temperature ICP operation up to 356 °F, with a full temperature range of -65 to 356 °F (-54 to 180 °C).

The sensing elements provide a 5 mV/g output over a 2 to 8K Hz frequency range and are hermetically sealed in a rugged, scratch-resistant, titanium housing. With an overall cube size of just 0.28 inches (7.1 mm) and weight of 1 gram, this sensor is suitable for testing in space restricted locations. Typical applications include environmental stress screening and NVH testing in high temperature environments.

Developing Next Generation Testing Strategies

Air travel is one of the safest forms of transportation. This is no coincidence, as every piece of equipment or technology that goes into the design and construction of an aircraft goes through a rigorous testing and certification process.

Regulation, education and training all contribute to the safety and performance of aircraft. So too does the performance, safety, reliability, durability and quality of aviation components.

AST is a key discussion for products for the aviation, rocket-and-space sectors to discuss the latest regulations, challenges, technological developments and systems that affect the design and construction of aircraft, whether civil or military, fixed-wing or rotary, and rocket/space sectors.

The conference will bring together delegates from around the world to benefit from presentations and discussions, and learn and discover more from the international industry expert speakers.

Co-located with AEE, the leading international event for the avionics community, AST (aerospace testing) is the premier platform to meet and engage with the avionics, space and aerospace testing community in the heart of the hi-tech aviation region in Bavaria, Germany.

Submit your proposal immediately or no later than 10th November 2017

 

Mercury Systems Acquires Richland Technologies

Mercury Systems has acquired Richland Technologies, based in Duluth, Ga. RTL specializes in safety-critical and high integrity systems, software, and hardware development as well as safety-certification services for mission-critical applications. In addition, it provides safety-certifiable embedded graphics software for commercial and military aerospace applications.

The acquisition complements Mercury’s acquisition of Creative Electronic Systems (CES) last November by providing additional capabilities in safety-critical markets as well as the opportunity to leverage RTL’s U.S. presence and expertise. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are very pleased to welcome RTL to the Mercury family,” said Mark Aslett, Mercury’s president and CEO. “Mercury gained a very strong footprint in safety-critical avionics with the acquisition of CES, based in Geneva, Switzerland, which we have renamed and is now operating as Mercury Mission Systems International (MMSI) as part of our Sensor and Mission Processing product line. The combination of RTL with MMS gives us a strong U.S. presence in the safety-critical avionics market, adding significant systems engineering, safety-critical software and hardware development and certification expertise to our existing mission computing portfolio. These new capabilities will enhance Mercury’s market penetration in commercial aerospace, defense platform management, C4I and mission computing – markets that are very closely aligned with Mercury’s existing market focus,” Aslett concluded.

DAC International to Distribute Thommen Products

DAC International, a subsidiary of Aero Precision Holdings, has signed a distribution agreement with Thommen Aircraft Equipment to promote and sell its products.

Thommen Aircraft Equipment manufactures mission equipment, displays, air data displays, air data computers, digital clocks and chronographs for helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and UAVs.

“We are proud to add Thommen products to our aftermarket support programs,” said Cisco Hernandez, president of DAC International.

“The distribution agreement between Thommen and DAC International opens new opportunities for Thommen to deliver products worldwide,” said Sebastian Sattler, director of business development for Thommen Aircraft Equipment.