Semantic definitions of spacecraft command and control languages using hierarchical graphs

Abstract

In this paper a method is described by which the semantic definitions of spacecraft command and control languages can be specified. The semantic modeling facility used is an extension of the hierarchical graph technique, which has a major benefit of supporting a variety of data structures and a variety of control structures. It is particularly suited for the semantic descriptions of such types of languages where the detailed separation between the underlying operating system and the command language system is system dependent. These definitions are used in modeling the systems test and operation language which is a command language that provides means for the user to communicate with pay loads, application programs, and other ground system elements.