JTAG donates boundary-scan hardware, software and support to European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) project

EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS: JTAG Technologies has donated boundary-scan hardware, software and technical support to the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) project.

Set to be the first European student mission to the moon, ESMO is funded by the European Space Agency’s Education Office and sees the collaboration of 19 universities throughout Europe working with UK-based prime contractor Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

JTAG Technologies’ donations comprise a boundary-scan controller, JTAG ProVision application generation software and support from ALLData (JTAG Technologies’ distributor in Italy). The solutions are to be used by the ESMO project’s On-board Data Handling (OBDH) team, which is based at the University of Maribor in Slovenia.

Team Supporting Prof. Dr. Iztok Kramberger, comments, “We are planning to have two boundary-scan chains on the On-Board Computer’s processor cards – one chain for accessing the processor, the other for accessing an FPGA.”

A preliminary design review is scheduled for this summer, after which work will
commence on the development of the processor cards and the JTAG test environment.

Launch of the ESMO satellite is planned for late 2013 or early 2014 and the mission is to place a spacecraft in orbit around the moon, photograph the surface and send images back to Earth.

Peter van den Eijnden, MD of JTAG Technologies, adds, “We are delighted to be supporting ESMO and, by extension, rekindling interest in engineering, science and space exploration.”