NASA Eyes Open Standard Software for Next-Generation James Webb Space Telescope

NASA Eyes Open Standard Software for Next-Generation James Webb Space Telescope

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is using IBM software to develop the software and systems that will operate the James Webb Space Telescope. The Next Generation Telescope which will succeed the Hubble Space Telescope will look much closer to the beginning of time and hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies.

The Telescope, expected to be launched by 2013, will study galaxy, star and planet formation in the Universe. In order to study how the very first stars and galaxies formed in the early Universe, NASA will look ‘back in time’ and deep into space using light time to travel from the present to the past. To study the earliest star formation in the Universe, NASA will observe infrared light, using special instruments optimized to capture this part of the spectrum.

Nearly 20 years ago when the components and instruments on the Hubble Telescope were developed, software was built by multiple organizations using proprietary software for systems development. This approach meant that maintenance, changes and fixes to components and instruments made required multiple tools. Over the life of the mission HST developed software tools to resolve most of these issues.

Because separate space agencies from several different countries around the world are developing the software that will operate the Telescope’s Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) systems, Command and Data Handling (CNDH), and the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) that houses the four primary instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope, it was critical for NASA to weave a common thread throughout the project that would circumvent expensive and time consuming software issues.

Read the complete Press Release