On Wed, Jul 31, 2002 at 12:18:54PM -0400, Michael Feldman wrote:

> But we know, and have discussed many times here, there just
> isn't much evidence coming to light. I'd feel better if each
> time this subject came up, I got a minor flood of new tips for
> my project summary. But that's just not happening. If the
> projects are out there, people can't or won't talk about it.
>
> I feel like a muckraking journalist, trolling for tips that
> I can publish without attribution. I'll take what I can get.:-)

One data point from Europe: At Space Systems Finland, a small
private company specialising in space software (both space-
and ground-based), we have two current Ada projects, which
you may include in your list with attribution:

  - The on-board Platform Application Software for the GOCE
    satellite (Gravity and Ocean Circulation Explorer), an
    ESA satellite which will run in low polar orbit and
    use a sensitive gravity gradiometer to measure the Earth's
    gravitational field. The Platform Application Software
    runs on the central processor (ERC32 = SPARC V7) and
    includes the data handling (TC/TM) functions and the
    attitude and orbit control functions, with ion engines.
    Software development started in Janauary 2002 and will
    use the XGC Ada compiler (a variant of Gnat) with the
    Ravenscar tasking profile. In this project, Ada was
    requested by the customer and we were happy to comply.

  - A software development tool to compute upper bounds on
    worst-case execution time, using static analysis of
    machine code. This tool has been under development since
    about mid-1999, so it is not a new start. In this project,
    we were free to choose the implementation language. We
    chose Ada partly for technical reasons (including
    portability Solaris/Linux/Windows) and partly to
    keep our staff in training for space projects. Of
    course I would make the same choice again.

On the other hand, we recently answered an RFQ for
satellite on-board software that required the C language.
The RFQ originated from the same company that is our customer
in the GOCE project, where Ada was requested for very
similar software, but a different department. When we asked
them why they want C here, they said that it was a "strategic
choice" for them. Hmmm.

Regards,

Niklas Holsti

[log in to unmask]                 Space Systems Finland Ltd.
Phone: +358 9 61 328 625             Kappelitie 6
Secretary:    61 328 600             FIN-02200 Espoo
Fax:          61 328 699             Finland
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