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A study on PDAs for onboard applications and technologies and methodologies

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Abstract

In 2005, the European Space Agency carried out a study intended to clarify the use of PDAs for onboard space operations. Being this a rather new application domain due to the introduction of uncommon technology onboard, a need for feasibility clarification was perceived. The study narrowed its unbounded technological dimension by focusing on Java technologies. Furthermore, at a software engineering level an “agile” approach was chosen for evaluation because of the high degree of user interaction and their ability to cope with general requirement changes like those resulting from the uncertainty about the actual features and quality of specific PDA platforms and COTS. Two studies were performed in parallel with the same objectives but obtaining different solutions. Suitable “agile-like” approaches compatible with space software standards were defined and tried. A space crew representative was involved from the early phases of the studies, and a final evaluation exercise at the European Astronaut Centre training facilities was performed. Feedback on the suitability of the technologies and the MMI design choices were obtained together with other unexpected lessons. The paper is concluded with an enumeration of lessons learnt and hypotheses about “agile” approaches of interest for the software engineering community.

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Notes

  1. Java, Java Micro Edition and J2ME are Trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

  2. Italics are mine.

  3. Stress is mine.

  4. Thomas Reiter was a member of the European Astronaut’s Corps at the time.

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Acknowledgments

The European Space Agency did provide all the required personnel, budgetary and physical resources to accomplish the two studies that produced the results on which this paper is based. The first draft of this paper was prepared by the author when working as Technical Officer for the reported studies at ESA's ESTEC centre using first hand information from the actual studies. The experience and support of all its experts were invaluable to steer them in the right direction. It was a pleasure working with each of them. Special thanks to our “user”, Paolo Nespoli, member of the European Astronaut Corps, who had to travel from Houston to Europe many times to evaluate our tiny PDAs and then back, quite often to support yet another launch of the Space Shuttle. The tiny and the huge with no transition in between.

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  1. DEIMOS Space S.L.U., Ronda de Poniente 19, Edificio Fiteni VI, 28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain

    Jesús Quirce García

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  1. Jesús Quirce García
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Correspondence to Jesús Quirce García.

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Quirce García, J. A study on PDAs for onboard applications and technologies and methodologies. Pers Ubiquit Comput 15, 457–478 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0318-4

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