Car industry sparks new testing standard for space

A universal advanced automation system, based on the same one used by car manufacturers, has been developed to standardise automatic test sequences for space.

The activity, run under the GSTP de-risk framework, improved upon a previous system, called ATENA (Adjusting open Test Exchange staNdard to the spAce domain), to make it more user friendly and enhance it with additional functions.

After an ISO standard for testing was issued, and widely accepted by, the automotive industry. As more manufacturers took up the standard, it increased productivity and saved costs. ATENA was built to introduce the same idea to the space domain.

The system is completely universal, meaning that no matter which engine or component is being tested, no matter for which mission, or by which company or on which satellite, it is still useable.

But until the de-risk activity, the files were hard to read and inaccessible for most. This GSTP activity improved the interface, which is accessible as a web tool, for users so that it’s now easier to implement. It also added one small adaptation step, since despite the tool being universal it still requires a small step to know how to interact with the instrument. This essential adaptation was developed under this activity.

Already, many industry members are keen to use it, but at the moment some effort is required to install and deploy the tool throughout an organisation. The activity hopes to address this as it improves the tool by introducing one-click installation, along with out-of-the-box interfaces for the most commonly used activities.

All documentation was received for GSTP 4000126313 in January 2020.