Question

In response to a question about examples of Java usages, I bumped across some articles where NASA used Java for ground control in a mission to Mars but I couldn’t find out if it has ever been used outside of Earth. Do you know of any such instances?

Answer 1

Here you will find a paper discussing the current state of using Java in space applications:

REAL-TIME JAVA IN SPACE: POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND OPEN CHALLENGES

They say:

In short time, it is unlikely that
with current Java implementations the
whole spacecraft on-board software
could be written in Java. However,
Java could be used as an isolation
platform for software that has not
been assigned the highest criticality,
while the critical code would still be
written in Ada or C.

Here one of the same authors reports on a successful test flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that uses Ovm (open source RTSJ (Real Time Specification for Java) implementation):

A Real-time Java Virtual Machine for Avionics