FreeFlyer Features List
FreeFlyer is available in two Editions:
-
FreeFlyer Engineer provides comprehensive analysis and full mission design functionality.
-
FreeFlyer Mission provides turnkey mission design functionality and seamless ground system integration for automated spacecraft operations.
Below you will find a product feature map showing a summary of the FreeFlyer Editions.
Edition Functionality
|
Spacecraft Propagation |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Fixed or variable step (step size is user-definable) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Supports nanosecond-level timing precision |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Runge Kutta 4(5), 7(8), 8(9), VOP, two body, Bulirsch Stoer, J2 Mean Elements, SGP4 propagators |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Planetary ephemeris (e.g. DE405, DE421, DE430, DE440) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Solar System object editor |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Atmospheric drag/lift, solar radiation pressure |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Atmospheric density - Analytic, Jacchia Roberts, Harris Priester, MSIS models |
✓ | ✓ |
|
International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) modeling |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Celestial body gravitational potential (point mass, zonals and tesserals, solid tides) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
SGP4 two-line elements, FreeFlyer ephemeris/state, STK ephemeris/state, SP3 Precise Ephemeris and CCSDS OEM file formats |
✓ | ✓ |
|
8th and 10th order Lagrange ephemeris interpolation |
✓ | ✓ |
|
User-defined parameters and formatting in FreeFlyer ephemeris file formats |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Hundreds of orbit/trajectory properties calculated at each integration step |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Unlimited user-defined properties using embedded math libraries or MATLAB connection |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Full spacecraft mass properties modeling |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Customizable spacecraft Tanks (chemical or electrical) and Thrusters (mono-propellant, bi-propellant, or electrical) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Formation/constellation modeling for unlimited numbers of objects |
✓ | ✓ |
| ✓ | ✓ | |
|
Cartesian, Keplerian/nonsingular Keplerian, Spherical/Spherical Lat/Long, Equinoctial, Modified Equinoctial, Brouwer-Lyddane Mean/J2, Brouwer-Lyddane Mean of 1950 orbital element systems |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Launch vehicle coordinates (user-definable to launch vehicle vendor specs) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Conversion functions to convert between numerous attitude and coordinate systems |
✓ | ✓ |
|
User-defined/custom coordinate systems with conversions |
✓ | ✓ |
|
LVLH, ICRF, Geodetic, UVW, VNB, and user-defined custom attitude reference frames |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Euler angles, Quaternion, Attitude matrix, Spinner attitude modeling |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Attitude history file (AHF) support |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Hill-Clohessy-Wiltshire (HCW) propagator |
✓ | ✓ |
|
LVC (Cylindrical), RIC Cylindrical, and RIC Spherical attitude reference frames |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Relative Motion Orbit Wizards for Proximity Operations (ProxOps) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Ability to Get/Set a Cartesian and Curvilinear relative states |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Work with HCW equations using the Relative Motion Utility |
✓ | ✓ |
|
High fidelity SRP Modeling using a PlateModel |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Generating Output |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Full 2D and 3D visualization with customizable camera Viewpoints |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Full-featured plotting library (XY and polar plots with Monitor option) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
User-defined custom ASCII reports |
✓ | ✓ |
|
2000+ built-in parameters available for reporting and plotting |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Globe layers to support coastlines, coastal offsets, political boundaries, and user-defined line layer element sets |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Unlimited user-defined parameters for reporting and plotting |
✓ | ✓ |
|
GroundStation masking and sensor swath modeling |
✓ | ✓ |
|
2D/3D Sensor views |
✓ | ✓ |
|
ProximityZones, Regions, and PointGroups for coverage analysis |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Unlimited output window tiling |
✓ | ✓ |
|
WatchWindow and GridWindow for configurable real-time data updates |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Output layout control for controlling size and location of output windows |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Pop output windows in/out of the FreeFlyer Workspace |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Flexible Console Window for reporting data |
✓ | ✓ |
|
GraphicsOverlay and WindowOverlay for adding custom elements to visualizations |
✓ | ✓ |
|
FreeFlyer Scripting |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Object-oriented scripting language to control all aspects of a FreeFlyer Mission Plan (objects, methods, commands, conditional logic, data inputs/outputs, and custom computations) |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Full-featured FreeForm scripting language editor with general programming convenience functionality such as finding all references, smart indenting, and script auto-complete |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Logic to control actions based on any calculated property |
✓ | ✓ |
|
For, If, While, Pause, Stop, Achieve, Target, Vary, Break, Switch, Continue commands |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Drag and drop mission design sequence |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Lists of any object type and Structs of any collection of types |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Batch run/Command line capability |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Conversion between all supported time systems and formats |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Integrated development environment control for system istrators |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Integrated debugger |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Any property can be set/reset real-time during execution |
✓ | ✓ |
|
30+ math operators for implementing custom algorithms |
✓ | ✓ |
| ✓ | ✓ | |
|
Random Number Generator |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Random and Gaussian noise distributions |
✓ | ✓ |
|
Coverage and Contact Analysis |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
400+ pre-defined GroundStation geodetic files and masking profiles |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Custom user-defined GroundStation position and masking |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Complex conic, rectangular, and user-defined sensor shapes |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Sensor obscuration masking |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Dynamic Sensor scanning |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Complete native RF link budget analysis support |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Visibility period calculations between any objects (Spacecraft-to-Spacecraft, Spacecraft-to-GroundStation, Spacecraft-to-custom ground region, etc.) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Field of view, elevation angle, azimuth angle, range, and range rate |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Solar and lunar constraints, Lighting constraints, Beta angle constraints |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Temporal constraints (interval, duration, GMT, mean local time) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Cross track, along track, range and range rates |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Vectors to/from any object |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Acquisition of Signal / Loss of Signal (AOS/LOS) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Collision avoidance calculations (customizable ProximityZones) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Sensor-to-Sensor, Sensor-to-Spacecraft, Sensor-to-GroundStation constraints |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Sensor tracking |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Magnetic field region modeling |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Numeric and analytic Earth refraction modeling |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Intersection of any vector and 3D model |
✓ |
✓ |
|
BlockageDiagram contact analysis |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Complete GroundVehicle propagation and analysis |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Simple Motion or Waypoint propagation models for GroundVehicle objects |
✓ |
✓ |
|
ICRF, VLT, and ENU attitude reference frames for GroundVehicle objects |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Euler angles, quaternion, and attitude matrix attitude modeling for GroundVehicle objects |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Radio frequency communications analysis |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Optical communications analysis |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Maneuvering and Targeting |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
✓ |
✓ |
|
|
Maneuver targeting with differential correction algorithms |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Dynamic configuration of the Targeter for resetting initial guesses and use within conditional For/If/While loops |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Support for standard chemical and low-thrust propulsion systems |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Thruster outgassing event modeling |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Optimization |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Generic optimization cabability for multi-variable optimization of user-defined objective functions |
|
✓ |
|
Definition of any number of state variables and constraints |
|
✓ |
|
Ability to minimize or maximize any objective function |
|
✓ |
|
Support for finding a feasible solution to solve constraints without optimizing an objective function |
|
✓ |
|
Ability to provide gradients and Jacobians to leverage known analytic derivatives |
|
✓ |
|
|
✓ |
|
|
Support for SNOPT through user-provided shared library file |
|
✓ |
|
Global optimization support through NLopt |
|
✓ |
|
Support segmented trajectory arcs and specific control models |
|
✓ |
|
Ability to create a discretized path of a trajectory arc through trajectory nodes |
|
✓ |
|
Ability to link multiple trajectory arcs |
|
✓ |
|
Multi-Objective Optimization, enabling optimization of multiple competing objectives simultaneously using a Pareto front dominance framework |
|
✓ |
|
Interplanetary Analysis |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
SPICE Ephemeris read/write support |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Full propagator control for a custom CelestialObject with a host of specific and generic interplanetary reference frames |
✓ |
✓ |
|
User-defined Regions on any CelestialObject |
✓ |
✓ |
|
B-plane targeting |
✓ |
✓ |
|
CelestialObject interference (all planets and star catalog) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Occulting CelestialObject modeling as sphere or ellipsoid |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Target CelestialObject modeling as point, sphere, or ellipsoid |
✓ |
✓ |
|
User-defined GroundStation location and masking profiles on any CelestialObject |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Generalized support for any Rotating Libration Point (RLP) system (L1-L5) in the Solar System |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Rotating-pulsating coordinate system calculation and visualization support for interplanetary mission design |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Interfacing with External Resources |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
MATLAB interface |
✓ |
✓ |
|
✓ |
✓ |
|
|
Generic ASCII and Binary FileInterface for user-defined ephemeris/state and other I/O applications |
✓ |
✓ |
|
ODBC database-compliant interface with transactional mode |
|
✓ |
|
Run command to spawn external applications |
|
✓ |
|
FreeFlyer Extensions Software Development Kit (SDK) for custom force modeling, object definition, and 3rd party code integration |
|
✓ |
|
Runtime Application Program Interface (API) for for embedding FreeFlyer into an external C/C++, C#, Java, MATLAB®, or Python application |
|
✓ |
|
Orbit Determination |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Extended Kalman Filter, Batch Least Squares, Unscented Kalman Filter, Square Root Information Filter |
|
✓ |
|
Customizable Batch/Kalman combinations implemented via script |
|
✓ |
|
Orbit Determination error analysis |
|
✓ |
|
Spacecraft Receivers and Transponders |
|
✓ |
|
|
✓ |
|
|
Tracking Data Editor with Sigma Threshold Editing that can view multiple measurement types simultaneously |
|
✓ |
|
Spacecraft covariance propagation |
|
✓ |
|
Fully customizable, user-specified tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
Ground-based range/range rate/azimuth/elevation tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
TDRS tracking two-way range/two-way Doppler tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
Point solution and GNSS pseudorange tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
Spacecraft-to-Spacecraft range/ range-rate/azimuth/elevation tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
Bilateration Ranging Transponder System (BRTS) tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
DSN 60-byte and three-way Doppler tracking data |
|
✓ |
|
Spacecraft Position, Velocity, Acceleration, Cd, Cr estimation |
|
✓ |
|
Transponder delay estimation |
|
✓ |
|
Maneuver and outgassing estimation (burn magnitude and direction) |
|
✓ |
|
|
✓ |
|
|
Spacecraft antenna offset modeling |
|
✓ |
|
Terrain Modeling |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Integration for modeling GroundVehicle state during propagation |
|
✓ |
|
Ability to load and evaluate multiple Terrain Data File formats |
|
✓ |
|
Occulting Terrain modeling with VisibilitySegment objects |
|
✓ |
|
Miscellaneous |
Engineer |
Mission |
|
Mission Plan Wizards for quick problem setup |
✓ |
✓ |
|
250+ Sample Mission Plans included |
✓ |
✓ |
|
✓ |
✓ |
|
|
Auto-save Mission Plan feature |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Available in Windows (FreeFlyer-8.exe, ff-cli.exe, API, FreeFlyer Extensions) and Linux (ff-cli.exe, API) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Extensive Help File with all property definitions, syntax, guides, and examples |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Dedicated FreeFlyer Technical Support Team available for assistance |
✓ |
✓ |