ASCENDING NODE TECHNOLOGIES LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S17

Description

We propose to expand Spacelinersquo;s capability to perform concept of operations (ConOps) feasibility analysis. Coverage Analysis calculates to what extent a region has been observed by a set of instruments. Access Analysis determines the timespans when entities are within unobstructed line-of-sight to each other. The inputs to Coverage Analysis include orbit, target availability, instrument field of view, downlink, and solar charging opportunities. The proposed addition of Coverage Analysis includes ground coverage for planetary missions and celestial sphere coverage; the proposed Access Analysis will allow Spaceline users to ensure that their spacecraft will fulfill their downlink, communication, and solar charging requirements even with complex data relay setups. The proposed innovation of integrating this utility into Spaceline increases its accessibility to a wider variety of mission proposal teams.nbsp;Spaceline can fill a valuable role in providing mission teams a single stable platform to share and communicate all the details associated with designing, planning, and analyzing a mission. Interviews with members of the spaceflight sector pinpointed several issues that Spaceline will address: (1) Spaceline will enable the rapid development of mission concept of operations, (2) Spaceline will provide a robust and flexible schema allowing for the design and review of plans in multiple coordinate systems, and (3) Spaceline will greatly reduce the overhead to communicate complex mission plans among team members. The proposed innovations of Coverage and Access Analysis to Spaceline will provide increased utility across all three use cases. Early in the lifecycle of a mission, while the ConOps is still in development, users will execute the analysis tools to calculate a baseline efficacy of a mission plan to support their proposal efforts. This baseline can then be used as a reference point for comparison against more complicated plans.