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AOCS SCOE

Special check out equipment is used for testing of spacecraft equipment and of the whole satellite. The offered AOCS SCOE solution is a unique combination of COTS components such as dSPACE® hardware and ASTOS software. dSPACE® builds SCOEs in series for automotive and aeronautic industry. In combination with ASTOS, a highly affordable and efficient system can be provided with 6 to 12 month lead time.

Key Features

  • Dynamics and environment simulation
  • Sensor and actuator modelling with runtime-adjustable error definition
  • Multi-body dynamics simulation (for berthing, sloshing, CMG, etc. modelling)
  • Flexible hardware solution based on industry-proven dSPACE® components (processing units & interface cards)
  • Multitude of supported emulation, stimulation and sniffing interfaces (analogue, digital, RS232, RS422, SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, CAN, Ethernet, etc.)
  • Local and remote control from central check-out system

Reliable Hardware Concept

  • Utilization of off-the-shelf dSPACE® components that have proven their reliability in many applications
  • Designed and developed in cooperation with dSPACE®
  • Galvanic isolation
  • Protected interfaces
    • Over-voltage protection of interface
    • Save mode at start-up and after failure
  • Power-on self-tests and continuous status monitoring
  • Health monitoring (e.g. smoke, temperature, isolation)
  • Time-synchronization based on PPS and NTP

Fast Adaptation to Specification Changes

  • Physical to electrical IO conversion defined in Simulink model allowing easy adaptation
  • Replaceable off-the-shelf interface cards
  • Definition of the spacecraft including the nominal orientation of sensors and actuators using the ASTOS GUI. Changes of the specification can be easily incorporated at any time.
  • ASTOS provides a multitude of environment models that can be selected via the GUI. Effects can be adjusted at run-time.

Feature-Rich User Interface

  • Realistic real-time and post-processing animation
    • shadowing, reflections, atmospheric scattering, articulation, thruster exhausts
    • data overlays (sensor frustums, velocity, force, torque, etc. vectors, coordinate systems)
  • Real-time and post-processing plotting
    • multi-axis, multi-data 2D plots
    • unit conversion
    • logarithmic and linear scales
    • map plots (2D and 3D) with optional GIS data overlay
  • Excel and database input data import

Detailed Modelling

  • Illumination of solar arrays and sun sensors
    • Local shadowing
    • Eclipses due to Earth and Moon
    • Zonal and seasonal albedo model
    • Electrical connection of solar arrays (parallel/serial) can be considered in electrical output calculation (see below)
  • Flexible multi-body dynamics
    • NASTRAN models can be imported
    • Sloshing & flexible structures
    • Reaction wheels and CMGs
  • System modelling (and concept analysis)
    • Power system (solar arrays, batteries, PCDUs, consumers)
    • Thermal control system (irradiation, heat conduction, thermal source)
    • Data system (data sources, storage, transmission)
    • Activity / state dependent power consumption and thermal heat generation of equipment