Mission Designer
The Mission Designer Module simulates the orbit of your satellite, position dynamics of any other objects that may drive the behavior of your satellite, and definition of pointing and operational modes of your satellite.
This Module owns the modeling and simulation of the following elements of the satellite digital twin:
Mission Time#
This is the start and end epoch of your satellite simulation.
Mission Orbit#
The Mission Orbit is the orbit of your satellite. This orbit is captured in the digitial twin model (static data) using the position and velocity at the initial epoch in the simulation. In Mission Designer, orbit propagation uses J2-only force modeling in a variation of parameters (VOP) algorithm to deliver idealized J2 orbit evolution.
The use of this relatively simple method is intentional, as J2 is often enough to synchronize orbital motion for the orbit design. Smaller perturbations push the spacecraft off this desired orbit and tend to limit the lifetime of the mission, and would be corrected by the satellite's propulsion system. Soon, Sedaro Satellite will include GNC modeling, which will allow you to account for these additional perturbations.
Targets#
Targets (ground, space, or celestial) are any other objects whose position dynamics may drive the behavior (active Operational Mode or pointing) of your satellite. Targets can be grouped to efficiently define satellite behavior that is consistent with respect to a set of discrete targets.
Pointing Modes#
Pointing modes define the commanded pointing of your satellite, either with respect to standard orbit-referenced directions or targets.
Conditions#
Conditions can be used to drive the active Operational Mode of the satellite at each moment in time, and are meant to represent rules that are established in flight software for autonomy or in operations commanding/scheduling to control the active Operational Mode of your satellite.
Operational Modes#
Operational modes of your satellite are defined to drive the selection of the active pointing mode at each time step in mission designer and will drive Module-specific mode transitions in component electronic loading, dissipation, thermal control, data rates, control modes, and other important dynamics as you build up your digital twin beyond this Module. Conditions and timing constraints are applied to these modes, and they are prioritized to enable the solution of the "active Operational Mode" state of your satellite at each time step in a Mission Designer simulation.
Quickstart#
Check out the following walkthroughs to see how Mission Designer can be used to model two notional satellite missions - each with a different and complex mission architecture.