Java Solution for Space Applications

30 April 2003

AERO/JVM, the JamaicaVM-based Java solution for space applications, was developed in the AERO project. With AERO/JVM, a reliable Java implementation for the demanding space domain is now availabl.

AERO/JVM was developed by a consortium led by Astrium SAS, Toulouse. aicas GmbH and the University of Linköping provided the required deterministic Java techonogy for this project

The European Space Agency (ESA) developed the basis for future software development in space applications within the AERO project. The objective of this project was to specify and develop a Java Virtual Machine that takes into account the severe constraints brought by the space domain. For on-board systems in satellites, these constraints include safety-critical and realtime software requirements.

As the basis of the development, the Java implementation JamaicaVM was chosen. JamaicaVM provides deterministic execution in conjunction with low memory overhead and high runtime performance as required by critical on-board satellite applications. Deterministic automatic memory management (garbage collection) is a requirement for object-oriented development in time-critical applications.