Beyond Computer Instructions and Data
More Capable Software Supports
Military Space Missions' Life Cycle.
by Marty Kauchak
MSMF Editor
The military space and missile community requires software to support missions that are increasing in complexity and variety. Industry is responding to its military customers’ requirements by delivering more capable software products that support the life cycle of a mission and address orbital debris and other dynamics of the space environment.
MEETING MULTIPLE REQUIREMENTS
One of the community’s basic requirements for software can be gleaned from the launch and tracking phases of a flight, according to Tonya Racasner, spokesperson, Air Force Space command’s Space and Missile System Center’s Launch and Range Systems Wing. “Range software continually tracks a launch vehicle to ensure it remains on its desired course,” she told MSMF. The software analyzes inputs from ground assets such as radar stations and telemetry data from the rocket or missile to determine the exact location of the rocket at all times. “The software continuously calculates where debris would land in case of a mid-flight explosion,” she added.
Innovation is alive and well at three other companies that deliver increasingly complex software solutions to their military customers.
A.i. solutions develops, maintains, supports and integrates its COTS space mission analysis software, FreeFlyer, that is a solution for an expanding requirements list. The product is an orbital, flight dynamics software application used for simulation and analysis, in addition to supporting satellite ground operations. FreeFlyer has 3-D visualization and reporting capabilities that lend themselves to the product’s use through the life cycle of a space mission. FreeFlyer’s primary functionality includes trajectory design, coverage analysis, orbit and attitude modeling and determination, and space asset management.
“Over 200 space missions and programs, including GPS and other U.S. military missions utilize FreeFlyer,” Paul Noonan, director, product division, a.i. solutions, told MSMF. FreeFlyer’s adeptness allows it to be used across the entire life cycle of space missions, from mission conceptualization (in the early design phase) through satellite operations and decommissioning. “When anomalies arise FreeFlyer has the capability to model the unique mission aspects to produce data for making informed decisions,” said Noonan, who also described in detail one mission that his product supported.
FreeFlyer has the ability to rapidly model and simulate tens of thousands of space objects, simultaneously. This creates efficiencies for the mission analyst who is performing trade studies on constellations of satellites, such as GPS, or analyzing risk reduction and risk mitigation for collision avoidance.
“Everyone is aware of the growing threat of orbital debris to our space assets, but modeling the ever-increasing number of potential collisions and accurately assessing their impact on both ground and space operations continues to evolve,” said Noonan. For one customer, a.i. solutions configured FreeFlyer to perform in a clustered, high performance computing (HPC) environment. He continued, “Using 10 ‘clustered’ computers we used FreeFlyer to assess the operational impacts on specific low-earth satellites over the next 20 years from the debris created by the 2007 Chinese antisatellite test. Such long-term intensive analyses meant creating high-fidelity orbit propagations of the several thousand pieces of debris. Using traditional single processor computing would take months; configuring FreeFlyer to in an HPC environment allowed us to complete the analysis in less than three days.”
The increased capabilities and agility of new space vehicles are, in part, also driving the demand for more automated mission planning and support software.
Orbit Logic’s mission planning software supports the Space Based Infrared System-High program and other key DoD initiatives by completing event planning based on the launch vehicle or satellite’s predicted trajectory and tracking information. One of the events and supporting information that are of interest to Orbit Logic’s military and civilian end users include lighting conditions. “This would include when the launch vehicle or spacecraft is going to be in the sun versus when it is going to be in the umbra,” observed Alex Herz, president, Orbit Logic. Some other important in-flight information provided by the mission planning software’s geometric-based predictions includes altitude (when the vehicle will be above or below certain altitudes) and when the vehicle will be in view of a ground station.
Herz reflected that his customers are becoming more comfortable with automation in mission planning. “The new vehicles that are coming out on the civilian and the military side are so capable and so agile that planning cannot be optimized or even adequately performed at all by a person. You have to do so with many iterations and searches in a solution base that is so large, now, that it cannot be adequately addressed by a human planner.”
Orbit Logic’s software also allows the personin- the-loop to influence what is generated by the algorithm on the front-end of the mission and the back-end after the algorithms have done their work. “Our software allows sole, manual control so you can do all the planning manually if you desire, but it provides the algorithms so at any time you can initiate those and let the algorithms do the ‘grunt work.’ The human can also look at the results at the end and make adjustments to the plans manually if needed,” he said.
A third industry mainstay, Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI), delivers its suite of out-of-the-box analysis and visualization software for broad use by defense, intelligence and space professionals to support mission launch and tracking. Its many specific applications include mission design, pre-launch planning, contingency and range safety analysis, real-time launch monitoring, on-orbit maneuver planning, mission anomaly resolution and postlaunch event reconstruction.
Victor Alvarez, product manager, AGI described diverse applications for his company’s software. At the top of Alvarez’s list was the System Test and Evaluation Planning Analysis Lab, Huntsville, Ala., that plans and evaluates Missile Defense Agency flight tests. “Using AGI’s flagship desktop application, STK [Satellite Toolkit], analysts perform feasibility studies, safety and debris modeling and analysis, as well as telemetry analysis,” Alvarez said. A second military customer, the Royal Air Force (RAF) facility, Fylingdales, U.K., provides continuous missile detection and space surveillance operations for the Missile Warning Center (MWC) in the U.K. and USSPACECOM’s MWC in the United States. AGI’s STK Engine speeds data retrieval, analysis and dissemination to RAF customers.
NASA’s Wallops Research Range, the agency’s principal facility for sub-orbital and small-orbital research programs, uses STK for real-time situational awareness during launch and to assess mission technical feasibility, safety and cost during mission planning. “Lockheed Martin Space Systems uses STK, driven by live telemetry, to provide real-time situational awareness for all United Launch Alliance Atlas launches and NRO Delta 2 and Delta 4 launches. The software processes ephemeris and attitude information for mission verification and key events and presents results in an integrated 3-D environment for launch operators and other stakeholders,” pointed out Alvarez.
Alvarez also commented on his customers’ benefits from using commercially available AGI software. “All the above programs were able to reduce cost, as well as technical and schedule risk. For instance, the RAF used AGI technology to upgrade their 30-yearold legacy system in six months at 90 percent less cost than alternative solutions,” he said.
PRODUCT ENHANCEMENTS
The Air Force’s Racasner provided her command’s perspective on shortfalls in current mission software and offered what is needed to close the existing gaps. “The current software requires constant upgrades and maintenance to deal with a large, complex and aging range system. Increased software reliability means more time the range is ready to operate.” The service’s Launch and Range Systems Wing suggested that industry needs to focus on making robust software that is easy to maintain. “Maintenance accounts for the largest percentage of cost in a software system,” emphasized the command.
Other improvements are scheduled to be delivered across companies’ software product portfolios.
A.i. solution’s FreeFlyer’s most exciting new feature is Extensions. FreeFlyer Extensions allows users to directly access and utilize external compiled code. “This means that customers can directly integrate their classified, propriety or legacy models and algorithms with FreeFlyer without the need to recode or recompile them. This has huge benefits to programs that want to upgrade their satellite ground systems to the high performance COTS tools, but want to use existing or specialized algorithms for specific functionality,” pointed out Noonan.
Later this year, Orbit Logic plans to release a version of its scheduling software that can be run as a service—allowing it to be integrated into other applications that its customers develop. “So they will not have to run our GUI [graphical user interface]. They can simply call up our application behind the scenes to provide the information and data they need and the essentially wrap it in their own planning and operational environment GUI,” said Herz.
AGI has realigned its existing products to fit the needs of the military space community. “So that our users can apply AGI technology in a variety of architectures, we now offer our software in three forms—desktop applications, application engines and low-level component libraries to meet the needs of the Web and disadvantaged clients. Also, we have introduced pricing, licensing and packaging options to fit the military business model,” concluded Alvarez. ♦