Modularity in Software and Space
May 20th, 2009 • Comments Off on Modularity in Software and SpaceI am a big fan of modular software. It allows the reuse of software parts and clear designs. Especially the later one. Think of a Object Orientated Software project where 100 of classes can just call each other – We invented OO programming for more cleaner designs and now the dependency graphs look horrible (have a look here), because every class depends on other classes and no clear boundaries are available. With the help of modular design it is possible to clean it up. But it needs to be enforced (see also here). If you say a programmer you should do it, he won’t. Therefore I suggest using OSGi! (But OSGi can become a mess to: 1 2)
Now I discovered a project for modularity in space and satellite design. With CubeSat (10cm x 10cm x 10xm) cubes are used as modules for satellites. It is therefor possible to create 1U, 2U (two cubes) and XU (X cubes) big satellites. Great idea! And it seems to work. Only the reuseability does not seem to work 🙂
Also great it the reduction of cost by using this satellite model. This is also true when using modular designs in software. You can run successful projects within time and resource usage with the right planning, tools and a modular design.
Other sites about the CubeSat:
http://cubesat.atl.calpoly.edu
http://www.cubesatkit.com/ – yes you can even build your one 🙂
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