Comprehensive Software Simulation on Ground Power Supply for Launch Pads and Processing Facilities at NASA Kennedy Space Center

Abstract

A multithreaded software application is presented that was designed by the Ground Special Power (GSP) team at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to fully emulate all units that supply VDC power and battery-based power backup to multiple KSC launch ground support systems for the NASA Space Launch Systems (SLS) rocket. The software application was built using Java programming language in Microsoft Windows 8 Operating System (OS) to emulate the operation, communication, and functionality of each VDC-power supply and battery backup units concurrently in communication via Ethernet open-socket protocol with Allen–Bradley (AB) RSlogix-5000 Programming Logic Controllers (PLC) currently operated as redundant data acquisition and control system at SLS launch pads and processing facility sites. The software application also simulates all the input/output (IO) signals acquired and generated in the SLS field via Mimic, a software platform commercially available to build simulation on IO signals for RSlogix-5000 PLC. All individual Java-based VDC-power unit simulators are concurrently integrated with the Mimic-based field IO simulation via Modbus communication protocol allowing a comprehensive simulation on GSP for SLS launch pads and processing facilities at NASA KSC.