OPTASAT: An Open-Source, Flexible Software Framework for Small Satellite Operations

Abstract

The unprecedented growth in access to space has created a corresponding growth in the number of spacecraft and the number of people operating spacecraft. This has meant that many of these operators are operating spacecraft for the first time. Gone are the days when the only operators of spacecraft were national governments, militaries, and massive corporations. The operators of small spacecraft today include many early-career individuals who need the tools to enable them to make strong decisions in the behavior of their spacecraft. The tools for operating spacecraft are often overlooked by teams focusing on the spacecraft themselves, but these operating tools are critical for mission success. Spacecraft operations tools have not developed in a similarly low-cost, widespread fashion as the spacecraft have. The best tools for modeling and understanding the situation of a satellite in space remain locked behind high barriers to entry including high cost, long training, and complex interfaces. In the same way that satellites have gone from the size of automobiles to the size of toasters, the software for operating them needs to go from expensive, complicated, high-performing suites to simple, flexible, approachable options that are accessible to the democratized space operators. New spacecraft operations staff need straightforward, direct interfaces which give them the knowledge of where their spacecraft is, where it will be, and what it will be able to do, and they need to know when all the options at their disposal are viable. Operators also need to be given the capability to adjust their software in whatever ways are necessary to tailor it to the particular parameters of their missions, to reflect the incredible variety of spacecraft and missions that exist today. A gap exists in spaceflight software. Users need software that can perform their mission planning tasks in the short term and to inform them of the upcoming parameters of their spacecraft which concern them, whether this is the spacecraft’s location, solar illumination, orientation, or any other property which is relevant to their particular mission. This software must also allow the users to be aware of the expected output of their sensors, especially imaging sensors, such that they may have an understanding of what they are imaging and what it ought to look like. Finally, this software must be open-source, enabling the user to audit the software and make changes to the software to customize it to their preferences, which may differ from anything the original software developer could have imagined. Such spaceflight software does not yet exist. This dissertation develops and presents OPTASAT, the Open-source Python Tool for Awareness of Spacecraft and Analysis of Telemetry, which provides an extensible, modular interface for incorporation of multiple tools which contextualize spacecraft data in a manner which maximizes usefulness for the operators. A priority is visualization of data to facilitate rapid understanding and distillation of the complexity of a spaceflight operation. This software has been released as a fully-featured, open-source software toolkit which performs the mission analysis components deemed most crucial to those who stand to benefit from it. This software is intended to fulfill the needs of small spacecraft missions. Several particular application cases are studied, including that of an Earth Sensing mission, and Astronomy mission, and modeling communications for a real laser crosslink mission. These case studies are evaluated for their ability to present the relevant information to the operator. For Earth Sensing, this involves displaying information regarding the spacecraft’s location with respect to the Earth, and enabling the selection of ground targets for imaging. For astronomy, the relevant information concerns the stars visible in the sky, and the spacecraft’s relationship to sources of interference like the Sun and Moon. For the laser crosslink example, we study the operator’s understanding of the spacecraft as they pass over a ground station and determine the operational configurations available for this communication. OPTASAT fills gaps in the field. OPTASAT presents users with a tool which is flexible and intuitive to use for understanding data from spacecraft in a way that is not currently available in the offerings on the market. Additionally, it takes functionality that is currently available in proprietary paid software and makes it available for free, in an open source offering that is accessible to everyone. OPTASAT will allow spacecraft operators (especially those operating spacecraft for the first time) to confidently know the state of their spacecraft, enabling them to make the best decisions for their satellites. This will reduce barriers to entry and smooth the learning curve, reducing the amount of overhead to new spacecraft operators. OPTASAT will be yet another step in the ongoing process of making space more accessible to a larger pool of users.