In the very near future, I'll be able to say that my job involves Linux (and not just spacecraft)! I'll be embarking with a small team on a two-month exploratory effort to install RTLinux on an MCP750 chip (similar to the space-qualified and therefore very expensive RAD750). Once we get it running and set up a credible development environment, we plan to roughly simulate the kind of processing that would happen on a spacecraft's main processor(s), maybe including intensive tasks like data compression and guidance-and-control algorithms.

We're aware of the FlightLinux project that was completed several years ago, but it's not entirely clear how the status of Linux in space has changed since then. I'm starting a web page to keep track of various missions and efforts; if you know of any that aren't listed, please tell me about them!

A Linux Journal article on the use of Linux in NRL's TacSat-1 sounds promising; next month we expect to hear whether we'll get the go-ahead on a proposal to partner with them in some more of this sort of Linux-in-space research.