ASCENDING NODE TECHNOLOGIES LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S5

Description

Simulating science objectives is an essential component of NASA missions to reduce risk. As technology has improved, so has the fidelity, complexity, and precision of scientific instrumentation. In addition, the communications bandwidth of the modern spacecraft allows for the transmission of more data than ever. These increased capabilities have placed extra demands on science data generation. Simulated science data for use innbsp;planningnbsp;are required for a successful mission, not only in flight, butnbsp;through all stages of mission planning as well.nbsp;nbsp;Unprecedented collaboration between science and operations teams require large swaths of cumbersome technology for sharing, integrating, and visualizing simulated data. This significant complexity hinders the ability of responsible parties to make informed, sensible, and rapid decisions.nbsp;Spaceline is a server- and web-based application developed under a previous NASA SBIR Phase I contract. The Spaceline application consists of three core capabilities: SPICE kernel management, 3D interactive display of a scene, and simulation of science data for any onboard instrument for a given instant in time. We propose to extend this core functionality further by extending Spacelinersquo;s features from supporting just visible wavelength imagers to supporting a wide range of different sensors that would interact with a variety of different target models. Each target model in turn represents different scientific phenomena ranging from planetary interiors to magnetic fields to the emission of volatiles and particles.nbsp;We will investigate how to best support exoplanet surveys with Spaceline and what features can be added to effectively simplify the considerations necessary for users who are designing sensors for exoplanet surveys as well as those who are planning and operating such missions.