FreeFlyer Features List

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FreeFlyer is available in two Editions:


1.FreeFlyer Engineer provides comprehensive analysis and full mission design functionality.

2.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

International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), Mean of J2000 Earth Ecliptic, True of Date Earth Equator, True Equator Mean Equinox, Earth Fixed, CelestialObject fixed reference frames

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

2D/3D visualization HD movie recording and image saving

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 administrators

Integrated debugger

Any property can be set/reset real-time during execution

30+ math operators for implementing custom algorithms

Matrix math

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

Maneuvering and Targeting

Engineer

Mission

Impulsive and finite maneuver modeling

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 multivariable 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

 

Built-in support for Ipopt and NLopt optimization libraries

 

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

 

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

TCP/IP socket interface

Customizable graphic user interface (GUI)

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

 

Automatic e-mail notification based on user-defined rules

 

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 Simulator

 

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)

 

GroundStation location, antenna bias estimation

 

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

150+ Sample Mission Plans included

Customizable Home Screen

Auto-save Mission Plan feature

Available in Windows (FreeFlyer.exe, FF.exe, API, FreeFlyer Extensions) and Linux (FF.exe, API)

Extensive Help File with all property definitions, syntax, guides, and examples

Dedicated FreeFlyer Technical Support Team available for assistance