Version 10 Release Notes

Version 10, released in August, 2010, added over 25 new demos and almost 150 new functions to the Spacecraft Control Toolbox. Some of the new features in v10 include:

• Sun/Earth-Moon rotating frame orbit tools
• Additional CAD components
• Interstellar Missions

(Click here for a complete list of newly added functions)

v10 also offers two new add-on modules which provide additional functions and demos.

• Fusion Propulsion
• Launch Vehicle

Sun/Earth-Moon rotating frame orbit tools

Several new functions have been added that help analyze and visualize orbits in the Sun/Earth-Moon rotating(SEMR) frame. It is now even easier to design interplanetary trajectories. Additional coordinate transformations, a new gravity modeling function, and a new plotting tool have been added. A comprehensive demo featuring an earth spiral out showcases these features.

The contour plot above shows the affect of the gravitational accelleration due to the Earth with the Sun's gravitational pull included in the model. Below is a simulation of a spiral out from Earth. The second image shows the orbital elements of the spacecraft in the SEMR frame as it spirals away from Earth.

Additional CAD components

New CAD components have been added to enable more varied and complex spacecraft designs. CAD designs not only provide a great visual aid, but also help design and analyze the spacecraft and its subsystems. Each component can be assigned a variety of properties and designated to a specific subsystem. The softare then uses this information to generate summary charts and subsytem budets. A new demo has been added to show the full utility of the CAD features. This demo employs a spacecraft designed for asteroid sampling. Its two robot arms can be seen in the CAD model. It utilizes optical navigation cameras as well, shown in pink on the CAD model. Several key design specifications are shown in the table to the right, generated by the MATLAB script.

Interstellar Missions

The Spacecraft Control Toolbox now includes tools to explore the possibilities of missions beyond our solar system. Many new functions have been added that enable interstellar mission analysis. Although with current technology, interstellar missions are a far way off, functions are provided to analyze such a mission and integrate new technologies as they become available. Demos are included to show an analyisis of a mission to Alpha Centauri.