Mission Control Technologies (TechTalk: 2/25)

The next AIAA SF/SVSC TechTalk will discuss the Mission Control Technologies software package. NASA has released it as an open source package for use in spaceflight mission operations. Jay Trimble, the project lead at NASA Ames, will describe the package.

The announcement below is the taken from the AIAA SF sign-up page for the meeting.  The page has pointers to documentation as well as the location on GitHub to get the source code.  If you're coming, please use the "Let us know" button on the page.  It helps us plan for food. :-)

AIAA SF/SVSC Small Payloads TechTalks 
Monday, February 25, 2013; 6:30pm-8:00pm 
Hacker Dojo, Mountain View

Mission Control Technologies

Jay Trimble
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA

Summary

Mission Control Technologies (MCT) is an extensible architecture that was developed as a generic framework for developers and deployed with a specific set of modules as an application at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Traditional software is built as monolithic applications. The functionality of an application is determined during design and development. Once an application is developed and tested, change is difficult, leaving users with few options other than operational workarounds, if the software does not do what is needed. Recent software systems have evolved away from monolithic applications to collections of components and services. This model leaves organizations with a more effective way to customize and reuse software.

Jay Trimble from NASA Ames will speak about the development and use of the software at NASA and the potential use for educational and commercial cubesat and other small satellite missions.

About the Speaker

Jay Trimble leads the User Centered Technology (UCT) Group at NASA Ames. The UCT group uses agile user centered software development methods to design and build software platforms for NASA missions. Highlights include Mission Control Technologies user composable software, the MERBoard Touchscreen used for Mars Rover Operations, and software for planetary data archive and retrieval.

Prior to leading the UCT Group at NASA Ames, Jay initiated and led the Mars Exploration Rover Human Centered Computing Project, building a multi-disciplinary team to work with the Jet Propulsion Lab to bring process and technology improvements to Mars Rover Operations.

Prior to NASA Ames, he held technical management positions at UC Berkeley and JPL, and was a flight controller at NASA Johnson. He has an MS in Computer Science from USC, and BA in Geology from UC Berkeley.