Case Study: NASA Ames achieves rapid, reliable LADEE flight software development and seamless in-orbit updates with MathWorks Model-Based Design

NASA Ames Research Center Develops Flight Software for Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer

NASA’s Ames Research Center needed to develop flight software for the LADEE lunar mission under tight cost and schedule constraints while handling a wide range of launch trajectories, precise instrument pointing, and frequent roll/flip maneuvers. To simulate numerous mission scenarios, satisfy NASA procedural traceability requirements, and speed development, the team adopted Model‑Based Design using MathWorks products including MATLAB, Simulink, Simulink Coder/Embedded Coder, Simulink Check, Simulink Report Generator, and Polyspace tools.

Using MathWorks tools, NASA modeled spacecraft subsystems and the plant, generated more than 26,000 lines of C code, and ran extensive processor‑in‑the‑loop and hardware‑in‑the‑loop tests before integrating with NASA’s cFE/cFS and Broad Reach PowerPC hardware. The project finished on schedule and within budget; Simulink models were reused for mission training and command verification, Polyspace streamlined formal code inspections by identifying dead code and issues, and a Simulink‑based update allowed an in‑orbit software fix that extended the mission by an additional month.

NASA

Karen Gundy-Burlet

LADEE Flight Software Lead