Java Implementation of Information-Sharing Protocol

Johnson Space Center's (JSC's) growing operations community requires new ways to distribute and process mission information. The Mission Control Center uses flight-control application programs based on an information-sharing protocol (ISP) to process and distribute real-time mission telemetry, trajectory, and computation data. ISP application programs provide multiple users synchronous, rapid access to mission data and programs. The ISPresso ISP software package is designed in Java, which is rapidly becoming the language of choice because of its ability to work on almost any platform. ISPresso plays a substantial role in the remote-access platforms now being implemented for space-shuttle and space-station operations and is used for Hubble Space Telescope operations. The portability of ISPresso enables deployment of mission-data-processing application programs to desktop computers and makes it possible to package application software for convenient access through web browsers. Such accessibility will prove useful in many additional process-control settings, from powerplants to all types of manufacturing.