Software Standards for
Satellite Applications

Design guide for efficient implementation

Control software used in satellites or to control the satellite from the ground must meet highest requirements. Accuracy and reliability are key criteria to ensure a successful execution of the satellite mission. Therefore, the software development has to meet highest standards and the development process is laid out precisely.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has defined the requirements concerning the development of its projects in ECSS-standards addressing different aspects of development in various sub-documents. For software development, for example, not only the standards for software engineering and software quality assurance have to be considered but also the general standards for project management or systems engineering.

The developer of software for satellite applications thus needs to know many different types of documents in order to take all requirements into account during development. In addition, a specific project tailoring has to be performed to define the specific measures that have to be implemented depending on the criticality of the application. In order to provide the developers of satellite software with a reliable tool for the application of the required processes, it is appropriate to develop a manual defining the concrete requirements and measures. This has several advantages:

• Key reference for all relevant requirements of the development process
• Consistent requirements for process tailoringng
• Clarification of unclear or ambiguous wording in standards

This procedure, for example, was implemented in the Galileo project. With a distributed development at various locations and with different companies involved, a design guide also helps to efficiently implement a consistent approach.

Berner & Mattner supports its customers in the introduction and implementation of sophisticated development standards by means of developing process manuals, defining and introducing methods and implementing them into appropriate tools. Here, standards from different industries are applied for developing safety-critical systems. In addition, we provide a relief to our customers from industry and science by accepting responsibility for the efficient and reliable transfer of product assurance and project management tasks.