In March 2021, GMV in cooperation with the European Space Agency prepared a three-day series of free webinars dedicated to the BIBLOS (Building Blocks for Earth Observation Mission Performance Simulators) software developed in Poland. Sixty five people from all over Europe participated in the online workshops. The list of attendees included representatives of large companies in the space industry, satellite integrators, as well as organizations and universities involved in the construction of instruments for observation satellites. Also present were representatives from Polish companies and institutes working on the subject of satellite Earth observation and the processing of observation data.

During the webinars GMV’s team of engineers presented the basic functions of the BIBLOS software and demonstrated how to install the tool and use it to compile a simulation chain of various types of Earth observation instruments.

What is the BIBLOS project?

In the European space sector, more and more attention is being paid to exploiting software-development opportunities, especially when it comes to planning, testing and navigating space projects. One example is the universal End-to-End (E2E) Mission Performance Simulators for designing, evaluating the functionality and performance of instruments (payload) used in Earth observation missions. They facilitate mission analysis, determine end-user benefits, and enable effective consolidation of the mission concept design with the accompanying technical requirements.

Until now, E2E simulators were designed for a specific mission, which entailed a costly redesign of the tool each time new requirements appeared in the project. To enable faster and cheaper building of E2E simulators for various instruments mounted on Earth observation satellites, the European Space Agency has started the BIBLOS project, which is being carried out in Poland by engineers working at GMV Innovating Solutions.

How does the BIBLOS software work?

As part of the BIBLOS project, GMV engineers create software consisting of universal modules - the so-called blocks - which can be freely combined with each other and, if necessary, reconfigured instantly. Thanks to this, using the same tool, in a simple way and with little interference in the software code, it is possible to validate various types of instruments used in space missions. The more modules available in the system library, the more different test scenarios can be performed with it. It is worth adding that the BIBLOS software is available under the ESA Software Community Permissive - v2.3 license, which means that it can be used by companies and universities from ESA member states for free.

You can read more about the BIBLOS project here