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SMAP Verification and Validation Project - Final ReportIn 2007, the National Research Council (NRC) released the Decadal Survey of Earth science. In the future decade, the survey identified 15 new space missions of significant scientific and application value for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to undertake. One of these missions was the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission that NASA assigned to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 2008. The goal of SMAP1 is to provide global, high resolution mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw states. The SMAP project recently passed its Critical Design Review and is proceeding with its fabrication and testing phase.Verification and Validation (V&V) is widely recognized as a critical component in system engineering and is vital to the success of any space mission. V&V is a process that is used to check that a system meets its design requirements and specifications in order to fulfill its intended purpose. Verification often refers to the question "Have we built the system right?" whereas Validation asks "Have we built the right system?" Currently the SMAP V&V team is verifying design requirements through inspection, demonstration, analysis, or testing. An example of the SMAP V&V process is the verification of the antenna pointing accuracy with mathematical models since it is not possible to provide the appropriate micro-gravity environment for testing the antenna on Earth before launch.
Document ID
20150005459
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Other
External Source(s)
Authors
Murry, Michael
(Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO, United States)
Date Acquired
April 10, 2015
Publication Date
August 1, 2012
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Geosciences (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP)
testing phase
Verification and Validation (V&V)
fabrication

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