Low cost test bed tool development for validation of mission critical events

The Cassini Program is one of the last large interplanetary spacecraft missions. It is a joint effort between the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency and NASA. The U.S. portion of the mission is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The primary mission is to survey the complex Saturnian system and release the ESA-Huygens probe at Titan. The success of the Cassini Mission has been largely due to its many simulation test beds and its rigorous test program. The Integrated Test Laboratory (ITL) at the JPL is an integral part of the Cassini Program and provides "hardware in the loop simulation". Pre-launch, the ITL\´s primary role was to validate system level architecture, subsystem flight software, ground software, and support equipment simulation software. Its present role has increasingly focused on mission operations sequence testing, anomaly investigation, training and validation of mission milestones. This expanded role has led to the development of necessary analysis tools. These tools were developed quickly and at low cost given that their necessity was not foreseen during early mission planning. Several rapid development techniques and cost cutting methods were used to implement the needed tools. The methods involved were; use of freeware, use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) software, and technology transfer with other Projects at JPL.