Integration and Automation Software for Testing of RIME and REASON Instruments

In collaboration with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the University of Iowa Radio and Plasma Wave Group is building the RIME and REASON radar instruments for the JUICE mission and the Europa Clipper mission respectively. Our team is in charge of designing and fabricating the transmitter circuit boards consisting of the power supplies, the high-frequency amplifier and the signal conditioner for both missions. I have been working with the group for the past year, and this summer I interned at JPL developing software for the Europa Clipper mission. For the 2018-2019 year, I am continuing this work with the Iowa team to help develop the flight boards for the mission and contribute to the testing phase. I developed several programs and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to interact with test equipment during my internship. These programs were originally specific to the JPL side, but are extremely useful on the Iowa side as well. Using the code I’ve already developed, I am working with the Iowa team to develop these programs on this end and create further programmatic implementation to help with the testing process. This code will allow the extensive testing phase to proceed with more automation and in a more comprehensive manner.