1. ENG4361 Space Mission Design
Dr. Franz Newland

2. Course outline – subject to change!

3. Mission design steps in this course
Development of mission need statement (ungraded) – 18th Jan
One-page statement of mission needs
Presentation of preliminary mission solution to meet needs – 25th Jan
Ignite-style mission architecture concepts that may meet needs 5%
Mission requirements – 1st Feb
Written requirements document derived from needs 7.5%
Mission baseline (group presentation) – 8th Feb
Half-hour presentation of baseline concepts, reqs, 15-minute feedback 5%.
Trade study – 15th Feb
Report on the trade analysis you performed for the mission concept 7.5%
Trade study presentation (group presentation) – 15th Feb
Individual presentations on the trade analyses 5%
Orbit analysis assignment – 15th Mar
Assigned activity requiring STK analysis and orbital design 5%
Final report (group) – 29th Mar
Mission description document %
Final presentation (group) th Mar/5th Apr
Half-hour presentation of mission, 15-minute feedback 5%
Final exam – TBD
Multi-choice, short answer and essay-style worked problems 25%
10% participation

4. Aside – you have a set of mission analysis software tools...
How many ways can you make them available to users?

5. STK integration – ways to provide functionality
“native” STK and toolboxes
STK “Connect”
Scripting connection to native STK. Simple and more integrated interfaces available
STK “engine”
Full STK functionality in a software “core” accessible through programming, scriping and “ActiveX”
STK components
Access to pieces of STK functionality through .NET or java libraries

7. Getting started… Start STK – but do not create a scenario
Find the AGI bin directory – e.g.
C:\Program Files\AGI\STK 11\bin
Start AGIPCEXP.exe
Look here to help you start:
New / Scenario <name>
(and its opposite) Unload / *
Connect Command Help:

8. Starting with connect
Add a New Satellite to your scenario (subtle hint for help command!)
Set (the) State of the satellite to the following Classical orbit parameters:
(Use the scenario interval, 60s step size, J2000 reference)
Epoch: 20 Mar :00:00
A: km
e: 0.0
I: 45.5 deg
Ω: deg
ω: 0.0 deg
ν: 0.0 deg
NB: Note the expected parameter order, and the expected parameter units

9. Next step Add a facility (New)
Set its position to 28.2 deg N, 54.5 deg W (Geodetic) at 10m above mean sea level
How does this differ to:
The same point in geocentric coordinates?
What would happen if I put the point at 0 N?
The same point defined as an altitude (not relative to MSL)?
What reference is used when specifying an altitude?

10. Geodetic: angle between equatorial plane and ellipsoid normal
Geodetic: angle between equatorial plane and ellipsoid normal
Geocentric: angle between equatorial plane and the line joining the point to the ellipsoid centre

11. Analysis workbench
Determine the distances between the points and write out in a report
Let’s use the STK interface for this…

12. Access times
Determine the Access from the satellite to the base ground station for the scenario interval
Create a Report to capture the access information

13. Astrogator
Back to STK