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Edit Board

The Mission Designer edit board is broken out into the following segments. For more details on the specifics of each of these segments, please view the adaptive guidance in the module's design capture interfaces.

Orbit & Time#

This segment is used to define your orbit and the period of time which you would like to simulate. Orbits can be defined via one of the following options:

  • Orbital Elements
  • Position & Velocity
  • Reference Orbit:
    • Polar Circular
    • Equatorial Circular
    • Sun-Sync Circular
    • Geostationary (GEO)
    • Geostationary Transfer (GTO)
    • International Space Station (ISS)
  • Two-Line Element Set (TLE)

Targets#

Targets and their motion relative to your satellite are used to drive ConOps logic and satellite pointing. Common targets include the Sun, ground stations, imaging targets, and crosslink or relay satellites.

Ground Targets#

Ground targets are fixed to the surface of the Earth, specifically the WGS84 ellipsoid.

Space Targets#

Space targets are other Earth-orbiting objects. These could be other satellites targeted by your payload or used for communications crosslink or relay.

Celestial Targets#

Celestial targets are natural objects which are located outside of Earth's atmosphere, such as the Moon and Sun.

Target Groups#

Target groups are used to group targets together so only one operational mode and one pointing mode are required to capture behavior that is consistent for multiple targets. A target group can be used in place of a single target to define ConOps condition parameters and/or pointing mode directions. Common applications of target groups include ground stations, relay satellites, constellations, and imaging targets.

Pointing Modes#

Pointing modes determine the attitude (i.e. orientation) of your satellite at each time step in your mission simulation.

Conditions#

Conditions are assigned to operational modes to drive ConOps logic. For example, you can use a condition to require line of sight to your ground station for entry into downlink operational mode.

Operational Modes#

Operational modes are the building blocks of your ConOps. Each operational mode is assigned a pointing mode, priority, and - optionally - conditions and timing constraints. The lowest priority mode is referred to as the "default" mode and is active when none of the other, higher-priority modes are compliant - even if the default mode is associated to conditions.

The active operational mode at each simulation timestep also drives the electrical loading of each spacecraft subsystem and it's constituent components. Loading is associated to operational modes via component load states. More information on component load states can be found in the Subsystem Loading section of the Energy Balance docs.