Co-development and Training

NGC helps organisations build or augment their autonomy-enabling GNC software capabilities by utilising our know-how and technology.

The proposed approach is to jointly develop GNC/AOCS software for a space mission (past, present, future or virtual) as a way for NGC to share its expertise and transfer its intellectual property to the partner organisation for its own use.

This type of project is carried out through software co-development activities, formal training sessions and by sharing NGC’s simulator, software libraries and development and validation tools. The training is organised in several learning modules that bring together the theory, the exercises and the co-development of the GNC/AOCS software for a specific mission, from the specifications of the mission through to the validation of the software on an emulator of the onboard processor. In a faster version of NGC’s transfer of its know-how, pre-existing GNC/AOCS software developed by NGC is delivered to the organisation and the co-development consists of its adaptation to the organisation’s mission.

The goal of these collaborations is to ensure that these organisations can become fully autonomous in using, modifying, improving and further developing this GNC/AOCS technology for their own space missions without the help of NGC, although NGC is always available to assist its partners.

Training

The collaboration agreement includes the provision of training and associated documentation enabling the partner to use and adapt NGC’s autonomy-enabling flight GNC software and NGC’s automated development and validation tools and spacecraft simulator to a given mission.

This training enables the partner organisation to understand the design of NGC’s autonomous GNC flight software and to adapt it to a given mission. It consists of the walkthrough and explanation of the NGC-delivered training documentation describing the GNC software design process. At the end of this training, the partner has the capability in-house to efficiently build NGC’s autonomy-enabling GNC software. The training typically consists of a mix of on-site interactive training (at the partner’s premises) and off-site training and support (via videoconferences, teleconferences, email and document exchanges).

Contact us for more detailed information about training content

Co-development

The co-development activities consist of the partner organisation developing its own GNC/AOCS software for a space mission (past, present, future or virtual) with support and guidance from NGC. In this way, the partner organisation benefits from the know-how and expertise that NGC has gained throughout its years of GNC/AOCS software development and becomes fully autonomous in using, modifying and further developing this GNC/AOCS technology for its own space missions.

The co-development activities are organised in phases. Each phase includes:

An initial training session

A co-development portion during which the partner organisation performs the software development activities while NGC provides regular support, guidance and review of the software and documents
An end-of-phase review meeting

At the end of the project, the partner organisation has GNC/AOCS software that is at the same level as NGC’s flight-proven software, along with the in-house capability to efficiently adapt it to other missions.

Licences

Collaboration agreements come with a licence to use NGC’s intellectual property. Licensing conditions can come in different forms:

Licence to use NGC’s products on a single spacecraft, only for the duration of the spacecraft’s life
Licence to use NGC’s products on multiple spacecraft, for any number of users in the same organisation, over a given territory for a specified duration
Licence to use NGC’s products on multiple spacecraft worldwide, for any number of users in the same organisation, for a specified duration

In all cases, the licence includes the delivery of NGC’s simulator, software libraries and development and validation tools.

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When you work with us, you’ll find we are very flexible when it comes to finding ways to integrate our technology into your project. We also provide in-depth training and the support of one of the most experienced Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) systems teams in the world.