EXPRESS PAYLOAD SIMULATOR
Research Area: Avionics and Software
Expedition(s): 19-ongoing
Principal Investigator(s): ● Kevin Gifford, PhD, University of Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
ExPRESS Payload Simulator is a flight
demonstration of the Software Toolkit for
Ethernet Lab-Like Architecture (STELLA)
integrated with LabVIEW provided to
International Space Station (ISS) Expedite the
Processing of Experiments to Space Station
(ExPRESS) Rack payload developers to
significantly aid in the development of the
payload software interface to the ISS Command
and Data Handling system.
EARTH BENEFITS
The STELLA software simplifies payload
development for the ISS by providing an off-the-
shelf software interface between the payload and
the ExPRESS rack.
SPACE BENEFITS
STELLA integrates with payload flight and ground software to correctly format and package
commands and data for uplink from the ground to ISS and telemetry from a payload for
downlink from ISS to the ground.
RESULTS
There are no published results at this time.
This investigation is complete; however additional results are pending publication.
For flight operations, Ethernet data transmitted via
standard protocols are transparently redirected by
STELLA through the NASA systems so the in-
orbit “Controller Computer” and ground-based
“Manager Computer” operate unchanged, as if the
experiment software is still operating in the ground
laboratory.