  In this paper we provide a detailed description of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes,
the most important algorithms for decoding them, and their use in concatenated
coding systems for space applications. In the current literature there is
scattered information regarding the bit-level implementation of such codes for
either space systems or any other type of application. Consequently, we start
with a general overview of the channel coding systems used in space
communications and then we focus in the finest details. We first present a
detailed description of the required algebra of RS codes with detailed
examples. Next, the steps of the encoding and decoding algorithms are described
with detail and again with additional examples. Next, we focus on a
particularly important class of concatenated encoders/decoders namely the
Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) concatenated coding
system that uses RS as the outer code, and a convolutional inner code. Finally,
we perform a thorough performance evaluation of the presented codes under the
AWGN channel model.
