LabVIEW as Flight Software With VxWorks Operating System

A development effort under way at the time of reporting the information for this article is directed toward producing a version of the LabVIEW data-acquisition software that would be suitable for use as flight software that could be executed in the VxWorks real-time operating system. The approach taken in this effort is to utilize the graphical programming capability of the LabVIEW software system to reduce the time and cost of developing flight software and, more specifically, to make it possible for ground-based software to be transferred to and utilized in a flight environment without rewriting the software. Thus far, a prototype flight version of LabVIEW has been developed to run in a VxWorks real-time operating system on an embedded processor for precisely controlling the temperature of an isolated cryogenic platform. (The temperature-control system is undergoing development for use in a future low-temperature microgravitational facility.)