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GMV To Provide Mission Planning Software For Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Rockville, MD (SPX) Jun 19, 2006 GMV Space Systems Inc., a satellite ground segment software company, announced Sunday that its FlexPlan software has been selected to provide the mission planning and scheduling system for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. The LRO is scheduled to launch in late 2008. FlexPlan was selected for LRO after a thorough analysis of existing Mission Planning and Scheduling systems, the company said in a news release. FlexPlan uses a soft algorithm generator, which allows the mission and flight rules to be implemented, changed and validated without recompiling. Because of this flexibility, FlexPlan can be used for any type of mission - Earth orbiting or interplanetary - and can be quickly configured, deployed and integrated into a mission's ground segment. With FlexPlan installed, NASA will be able to plan, schedule and manage all phases of the lunar mission. The status and usage of the on-board instruments, power system and solid state recorder, as well as the target scheduling, data dumps, and flight dynamic events - such as eclipses, ground station acquisition and loss, and maneuvers - can all be coordinated and scheduled using FlexPlan. FlexPlan has been sold to missions operated by ESA, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and now NASA. "We are now the only satellite ground segment software company in the world to sell operational mission planning and scheduling (software) to control satellites operated by space agencies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean," said Theresa Beech, GMV's managing director, vice president of business development and acting officer. The LRO will be the first mission in NASA's new exploration initiative and the first NASA mission to the Moon since Lunar Prospector launched in 1998. The LRO is scheduled to launch aboard an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The satellite will orbit the Moon and collect scientific data for a year. The lunar orbiter will study the global topography of the lunar surface, document illumination conditions and resources, map the flux of neutrons from the lunar surface to determine evidence of water ice, provide space radiation measurements for possible future human exploration, map the temperature of the entire lunar surface, observe the entire lunar surface in the far ultraviolet and investigate the effects of galactic cosmic rays on tissue-equivalent plastics. After collecting measurements for one year, the mission may be extended for up to an additional four years depending on objectives during the extended mission phase. After extended mission phase, the orbiter will undergo end-of-life operations and will impact the lunar surface signaling the end of the mission. Email This Article
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Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 16, 2006There's a new crater on the Moon. It's about 14 meters wide, 3 meters deep and precisely one month, eleven days old - and NASA astronomers watched it form. "A meteoroid hit the Moon's Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy - that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center. |
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