Want it to Work in Space? Better Test it Frequently on Earth
World Space Week celebrates women in space, including the often-forgotten task of testing.
October 8, 2021
Are you ready to participate in World Space Week? This year, the event celebrates “Women in Space” by joining thousands of participants in over 90 countries to showcase the accomplishments and contributions of women to the space sector and sciences.
One of the pillars of any space endeavor is testing space-related systems on earth and then in space. Women have been active in these activities. One example is a group of women software testers called the “Women in Test” community. Women Who Test connects women software professionals worldwide, allowing them to share testing ideas and solutions while helping each other grow and advance their careers.
Complex space systems require both hardware and software implementations to operate, requiring qualified engineers (women and men) to test them. Here are just a few recent test activities involving both ground and space systems.
Ground-Based Testing
One example of ground-based testing is NASA’s Safe & Precise Landing Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) project, developed with an advanced system of sensors, avionics, and algorithms for safely landing on planetary surfaces. The significant components of SPLICE, along with navigation doppler lidar, are a camera for terrain relative navigation, a hazard detection lidar, and a decent and landing computer that incorporates a surrogate for the in-development NASA high-performance spaceflight computing (HPSC) processor.
The SPLICE will develop and test out precision landing and hazard avoidance (PL&HA) technologies for NASA and potential commercial spaceflight missions.
PL&HA technology advancements are being considered in the following areas:
– Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL), which provides direct velocity and ranging measurements using Doppler-based techniques
– Hazard Detection Lidar (HDL), capable of generating a real-time, 3-D terrain map within a 50-meter radius of the landing target, at a sufficient range to allow for safe landing site determination