The New Millennium Program (NMP) is a NASA initiative intended to increase the frequency and effectiveness of near-earth and deep-space missions. To do so, the NMP will utilize a fleet of smaller, simpler, less expensive aircraft that work in concert to solve complex problems. NMP craft will also be endowed with advanced planning and decision making capabilities that enable them to solve complex navigation, data collection, and other mission problems autonomously with minimal input from ground control.

JPL and NASA Ames are charged with developing and validating the technologies needed for autonomous operation and multi-craft coordination. The first validation flight is slated for July of 1998, beginning with Deep Space 1, which will be the first planetary spacecraft flown with completely automated Navigation, Guidance and Control Systems. The first missions will be fly bys for small celestial bodies like comets and asteroids.

Deep Space 1 will be used to validate several NMP technologies, include an autonomy remote agent that provides overall mission planning and control for the craft; autonomous cruise optical navigation and control, beacon mode operations that greatly simplify ground control and reduce telemetry costs, and an advanced celestial sensor.

A VMEbus system provides all of the navigation, guidance, control, propulsion, instrumentation, and telemetry electronics for Deep Space One. A radiation-hardened PowerPC-based CPU board running the VxWorks real-time operating system serves as a main controller. It executes a LISP program that handles fault recovery, a C++ program that provides mission planning, and a C program that handles flight systems control, attitude control, and navigation.

The LISP software was developed using a Harlequin LISP compiler. The C and C++ programs were developed under MULTI using Green Hill's C and C++ compilers. Message passing software developed at Carnegie Mellon Institute enables the three programs to interact with each other and utilize the multitasking services of the VxWorks real-time operating system.

Said Abdulla Aljabri, JPL Software Program Manager for Deep Space One , "The Green Hills compilers have been instrumental in helping us quickly develop the flexible, efficient, and reliable code needed for Deep Space One. Robust support for the PowerPC architecture and VxWorks operating system was also a big plus."

Added Green Hills President Dan O'Dowd, "We're excited to be involved with The New Millennium Program. Providing ultra-reliable software development tools for applications targeting mission- critical embedded environments has always been a top-priority for us. And the ability to support multiple host and target platforms with an efficient, uniform multi-language development environment has always been our strong suit."

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