Advanced simulation system design process for lunarsat

This paper describes an approach to improve data quality and to reduce the development times for satellite simulations during all mission phases by interfacing existing software tools. The goal is to develop a consistent tool chain that enables the user to automatically transfer the data obtained from the tools in early project phases to the later phases. In this payer an overview for the current simulation development cycle and the disadvantages will be outlined. Then the proposal for a new approach is presented. As an example the creation of an interface between two simulation tools, MuSSat and Matlab/SIMULINK(TM), will be discussed. The MuSSat application, which is used during phase 0 and phase A, is a concurrent engineering design tool. It is perfectly suited to support development during the early phases of a space mission. The tool Matlab/SIMULINK is primarily used in later phases for various simulation tasks and even real-time simulation. Currently no interface between the tools exist. By connecting the two tools one would eliminate the 'transmission losses' that usually occur when data is transferred manually from one tool to another. Obviously, such interfaces are advantageous for all design tools used in the project life cycle of a space mission as cost and development time can be reduced dramatically.