STIX – Software for the X-ray Telescope

Challenge

STIX (Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays) is an X-ray telescope aboard ESA's Solar Orbiter. The instrument requires reliable flight software and automated ground data processing. The software must function reliably under extreme conditions – heat, radiation, minimal resources.

Solution

• Verification and testing of embedded flight software before launch
• Development of Python-based telemetry pipeline (Level 0 → Level 2)
• Ground analysis software for scientific evaluation (IDL and Python)
• STIX Data Center for archiving and worldwide access
• Development of algorithms for onboard analysis of solar data (detection of solar flares)
• Algorithms for optimizing data before transmission to Earth

Our Contribution

• Verification and testing of the embedded flight software
• Development and maintenance of the complete data pipeline
• Building and operating the STIX Data Center infrastructure
• Ongoing support and pipeline evolution over 5+ years

Technologies

Results

Solar Orbiter has been flying towards the Sun since February 2020. The data pipeline has been running productively for over 5 years and will continue for the next 5-10 years. Scientists worldwide use the calibrated data for their research – accessible via the STIX Data Center.

More about our space projects at ateleris.space