The NanoSat MO Framework (NMF) is a software framework for nanosatellites based on CCSDS Mission Operations services. It was developed by

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in partnership with the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

. The framework facilitates the monitoring and control of the nanosatellite software applications as well as the interaction with the nanosatellite platform. This is achieved by using the latest CCSDS standards for monitoring and control, and by exposing services for common peripherals among nanosatellite platforms. Furthermore, it is capable of managing the software on-board by exposing a set of services for software management. Installed apps onboard can be started and stopped from ground via the NMF. Apps can retrieve data from the nanosatellite platform through a set of platform services. Additionally, it includes CCSDS standardized services for monitoring and control of apps. An NMF App can be developed, distributed, and deployed on a spacecraft. There is a Software Development Kit (SDK) in order to facilitate the development of software based on the NanoSat MO Framework. NMF Apps are written in

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and have

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as a prerequisite. The project's source code and several release versions are available via

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. A CubeSat simulator that can provide telemetry data as well as GPS and ADCS information is included with the NMF. Mission planning services will be included in future releases. , they are still under development. The reference implementation of the NanoSat MO Framework will be used in ESA's

OPS-SAT OPS-SAT is a CubeSat by the European Space Agency (ESA) and it is intended to demonstrate the improvements in mission control capabilities that will arise when satellites can fly more powerful on-board computers. The mission has the objective to b ...

mission, an in-orbit laboratory mission specifically designed to test new software.

Architecture Specifications

The NanoSat MO Framework is built upon the CCSDS Mission Operations services Architecture and therefore it inherits its properties such as being transport-agnostic, multi-domain, and programming language independent. Additionally, it is independent from any specific nanosatellite platform. The software framework includes 5 sets of MO services. The first 3 are Standardized by the CCSDS and the other 2 are bespoke interfaces: *COM services *Common services *Monitor and Control services *Platform services *Software Management services The NanoSat MO Framework is split in two segments. First, the “Ground Segment” just like in any traditional spacecraft system. Second, the “NanoSat Segment” which is the equivalent of the space segment but because the target of the framework are nanosatellites, it contains a more specialized name. An NMF Composite is a software component that consists of interconnected services specialized for a certain purpose and to be deployed on the NanoSat segment or Ground segment. The NMF Composites are based on SOA’s service composability design principle that encourages reusing existing services and combine them together to build an advanced solution. The naming convention for the NMF Composites is: MO The defined set of NMF Composites are: *NanoSat MO Monolithic *NanoSat MO Supervisor *NanoSat MO Connector *Ground MO Adapter *Ground MO Proxy The objective of the NMF Composites is to provide prebuilt components that allow quick development of new software solutions that are interoperable in end-to-end scenarios. The NanoSat MO Framework defines an NMF App as an on-board software application based on the NanoSat MO Framework. An NMF App can be developed by integrating the NanoSat MO Connector component into the software application. NMF Apps are expected to be started, monitored, stopped, and/or killed by the NanoSat MO Supervisor component.

Reference Implementation in Java

The reference implementation provides a concrete implementation of the specifications of the NanoSat MO Framework in the Java programming language. It was used to discover problems, errors and ambiguities in the interfaces. The implementation is mature and the first version is available online. This reference implementation also serves as the basis for the tools of the Software Development Kit which can be used by other developers. The reference implementation in Java is currently maintained by the

and it is available online for free (on

) under the open-source European Space Agency Public License.

NMF SDK

The NanoSat MO Framework Software Development Kit (NMF SDK) is a set of development tools and software source code that facilitate the creation of applications with the NanoSat MO Framework. It is composed of: *Demos for NMF Ground software development *Demos of NMF Apps *Consumer Test Tool (CTT) *NMF Package Assembler *NMF Playground (with a satellite simulator) *Documentation The NMF SDK is the starting point for a software developer willing to develop applications with the NMF.

NMF Missions

An NMF Mission is a concrete implementation of the NanoSat MO Framework for a specific mission. The NMF Mission development includes activities such as implementing the Platform services and the NanoSat MO Supervisor for the specific platform. If a custom or tailored transport is used for the mission, then the transport binding must be implemented and additionally, integrated with the Ground MO Proxy for protocol bridging. The following NMF Mission implementations were implemented: Software Simulator, and

Software Simulator

The Software Simulator was developed to be part of the NMF SDK in order to provide simulated data towards the NMF Apps during the development and testing phases.

OPS-SAT

An implementation for ESA's

mission was developed in order to validate the software framework in-flight. OPS-SAT is a CubeSat built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched in December 2019, and it is intended to demonstrate the improvements in mission control capabilities that will arise when satellites can fly more powerful on-board computers. For example,

experimenters can use the NMF SDK for quick development of software capable of running on ground or in space. The NanoSat MO Framework apps are able to publish telemetry, receive telecommands or access the GPS device on

References

External links

*{{Official website, nanosat-mo-framework.github.io *Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) at http://www.ccsds.org Spaceflight technology European Space Agency Free software programmed in Java (programming language) Java development tools