ESA use of Ada

ESA use of Ada

[howell]

I believe that the European Space Agency (ESA) is using Ada for some
major spaceflight projects, and that HOOD is at least a methodology
being considered within the ESA community.  Can anyone provide a bit
more information, e.g.
    * does ESA mandate Ada for all projects?  If so, is there a waiver
      process, and how did they implement the mandate?

    * has ESA mandated related standards (e.g., methodology to be used,
      or PDL format, or standard interfaces to OS or DBMS services, etc.)

    * what's the current status of Ada use w/in ESA community? (e.g.,
      10 KSLOC pilot projects underway, or 3 MSLOC od running code
      implemented, or.... ?

    * (finally), any set timeframe for ESA to re-evaluate any
      standards decisions that they have mandated?

Thanks a lot for any help you can give; I'm very interested in the
status of Ada use at ESA!

    Chuck Howell
    MITRE, Mail Stop Z-645
    7525 Colshire Drive
    McLean, VA 22102-3481
    howell@community-chest.mitre.org
      

      

Re: ESA use of Ada

[Javier Romanach]

In article <8907140011.AA03469@boardwalk.mitre.org> howell@COMMUNITY-CHEST.MITRE.ORG writes:
>I believe that the European Space Agency (ESA) is using Ada for some
>major spaceflight projects, and that HOOD is at least a methodology
>being considered within the ESA community.  Can anyone provide a bit
>more information, e.g.
>    * does ESA mandate Ada for all projects?  If so, is there a waiver
>      process, and how did they implement the mandate?
>
>    * has ESA mandated related standards (e.g., methodology to be used,
>      or PDL format, or standard interfaces to OS or DBMS services, etc.)
>
>    * what's the current status of Ada use w/in ESA community? (e.g.,
>      10 KSLOC pilot projects underway, or 3 MSLOC od running code
>      implemented, or.... ?
>
>    * (finally), any set timeframe for ESA to re-evaluate any
>      standards decisions that they have mandated?


	COLUMBUS is the biggest project being carried out by ESA. It is a
joint programme with NASA's Freedom space station Project. The objective
of COLUMBUS is the development of the european part of the space station.

	COLUMBUS' software must be written in Ada, and HOOD must be used as
design methodology. C or Assember may be used in special circumstances. 

	There are software standards for COLUMBUS (ESA reference STD 
12131800 000; Issue 2; 15th November 1988), that cover:

		- software life cycle
		- documentation format
		- SADT
		- HOOD
		- Petri Nets
		- Detailed Design
		- software qualification
		- prototyping
		- Data Design Standard
		- software coding standards (Ada, C, Assembler and Command
		  Languaje)
		- software product assurance
		- commercial software procurement
		- configuration management
		- PDL 

	We are not sure about the use of Ada in other ESA projects, but it
seems that Ada is the current baseline.



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