NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Exploration Rovers
"For more than two decades, Wind River has had the honor to work with the inspirational people of NASA's JPL and we are continuously impressed by their space exploration projects such as the Mars Exploration Rovers," said Jerry Fiddler of Wind River Systems. "As the founder of Wind River, I am personally proud that our reliable, secure device software - specifically our real-time operating system VxWorks - has served as a key foundational technology for many aerospace organizations that shape the future of space exploration."
| January 5, 2004 | Wind River Powers NASA's Space Exploration - Mars Rovers Lands Safely, Stardust Spacecraft Completes its Journey to the Comet |
| Challenge | Solution | Results |
| NASA's JPL needed a successful landing of its two Mars Exploration Rovers-Spirit and Opportunity.
| The Mars Exploration Rover mission was Wind River's second mission to Mars with JPL. The first Mars mission was the Pathfinder/Sojourner Mission in 1997.
The Pathfinder/Sojourner mission was so successful that JPL modeled their 2003/2004 Mars Exploration Rovers off the original project. Much like the original project, the Mars Exploration Rovers' software packages were developed using Wind River Workbench, previously known as the Tornado IDE, Wind River Debugger and the VxWorks real-time operating system. The flexibility and portability of Wind River's device software allowed NASA JPL engineers to concurrently develop and debug the application, which is necessary when the applications are millions of miles away. | In June of 2004 the Mars Rovers - Sprit and Opportunity - successfully launched from earth and began their way through a turbulent atmosphere to Mars.
In January of 2004 both Rovers successfully landed. Currently, the Rovers are roaming Mars and performing complex tasks including ground operations control, data collection, Mars to Earth communication relay and more. |
