An Automated Constellation Design & Mission Analysis Tool for Finding the Cheapest Mission Architecture

An Automated Constellation Design & Mission Analysis Tool for Finding the Cheapest Mission Architecture

Utah State University, Logan, UT

Identifying the optimal mission architecture for a space mission is critical for mission success, especially for large constellations. Here, optimizing the entire mission architecture for cost is necessary for the business case to work. This paper presents an automated system that combines constellation design and mission analysis functions in the context of a distributed engineering environment. It utilizes analytical methods, commercial simulation software and other specialized tools to identify multiple eligible constellations for the user-defined case, perform the associated mission analysis tasks, and provide input for additional tools like cost estimation software to eventually identify the optimal constellation. This allows assessing more options to fulfill the mission in less time, establishing the benefits of each constellation analyzed, and also allows non-expert users to quickly understand and evaluate consequences of design or requirement changes.