Integrated Spacecraft Design Tools

Abstract

The thesis surveys current software tools to design satellites and develops an integrated spreadsheet-based tool for preliminary spacecraft design. First, several existing and future design tools - both commercially available and company proprietary are discussed and evaluated. Second, a spreadsheet-based design tool which is generally applicable to any earth-orbiting satellite is developed. Preliminary design of all satellite subsystems is performed on separate sheets of the Excel workbook. Based on user-entered orbital data, propellant and mass budgets are also calculated. The design technique and spreadsheet implementation is presented along with the underlying "first principles" theory and equations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA379782

Entities

People

  • Troy W. Pannebecker

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aphelions
  • Apogees
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Astronautics
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Database Management Systems
  • Engineers
  • Geosynchronous Satellites
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Payload
  • Satellite Buses
  • Space Systems
  • Spacecraft
  • Spreadsheet Software
  • Systems Engineering

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Software Engineering
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites