First Fully Compatible Satellite Data Model Flight Software Released for AFRL's PnPSat Published May 6, 2008 By Eva Blaylock Space Vehicles Directorate KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- AFRL contractor Real-Time Innovations, Inc. (RTI), released the first version of Satellite Data Model (SDM) flight software to be fully compatible with AFRL's plug-and-play satellite (PnPSAT). The company's next-generation SDM flight software provides AFRL greater flexibility and consistency in developing plug-and-play avionics, both for ongoing PnPSat research activities and for toolset build efforts in the Responsive Space Test Bed. RTI engineers based the newly updated software, which is synchronized with the earlier version, on the company's data distribution service approach. The enhancement required no changes to the SDM applications programming interface, nor did it alter the operation of existing applications. For implementation test purposes, researchers ran the modified software on Utah State University's existing test suite using sample code. Another software package (also developed commercially) enables generation of internal documentation from the code itself.