The Applied Defense Solutions Space Systems Group provides engineering analysis and custom integration services for spacecraft mission planning and operations.

The Space Systems Group has proven expertise in astrodynamics and computer science. The group specializes in integrating and tailoring existing astrodynamics COTS technology to meet the specific requirements of the mission, and customizes user interfaces to streamline workflow and reduce risk.

The Space Systems Group also performs mission analysis and operations for several organizations. When organizations need highly specialized skill sets for a new project and/or might not be able to justify hiring full time support, the Space Systems Group can meet their needs. This work is often to support special projects, surge needs, staff leveling, proposal efforts, contingency operations, and as reach-back support when extra expertise is needed.

The staff brings experience from many civil, commercial, and military space programs, providing a diverse background from which innovative and efficient solutions are developed. They have produced systems and techniques currently used world-wide in the aerospace industry. They also have worked on wide variety of missions, including:

• Responsive space
• Rendezvous
• Proximity operations
• Formation Flying
• Geostationary
• Highly Elliptical (Eccentric)
• Low earth
• Lunar
• Libration point
• Interplanetary

The staff are directly involved in current and future missions supporting NASA, the US Navy, and the Air Force. In addition to current missions, they also stay up to date with new trends in these fields as active members in professional societies and conferences.

The Space Systems Group provides services in many areas, including:

Space Situational Awareness

• Space common operating picture (COP)
• Real-time monitoring
• Sensor selection, scheduling, and optimization
• Maneuver detection
• Mission reconstruction, prediction, and verification
• Response planning and trade-off analyses

Spacecraft Operations

• Orbit determination
• Maneuver planning, reconstruction, and calibration
• Collision avoidance (COLA): detection and maneuver planning
• Formation maneuver planning
• Real time monitoring
• Station contact planning and acquisition data
• Contingency response
• Trending
• Operations training and simulations
• Spacecraft flight dynamics systems
  • integration with legacy and new databases
  • installation and configuration
  • training

Mission Analysis

• Concept development
• Pre-launch analysis
• Launch window analysis
• Multi-spacecraft separation & deployment from launch vehicle
• Maneuver planning and trajectory design
• Fuel budgets
• Contingency analysis
• Orbit error and covariance analysis
• Tracking system verification and analysis
• Flight Dynamics software and algorithm verification and validation
• Mission requirements and constraints analysis, including payload and communications coverage
• Communications and network modeling

The Network Modeling & Simulation Group at Applied Defense Solutions specializes in the development and design of discrete-event simulations, or network modeling, allowing analysts to determine the performance of large networks and the interplay of protocols.

The engineers in the Network Modeling & Simulations Group have extensive experience with network modeling COTS tools, creating hardware in-the-loop simulations, protocol development, and network analyses. The primary tools the staff uses for network modeling are:

• OPNET Modeler
• Scalable Networks' QualNet
• NS2

In addition to being experts in using these COTS products, the group also specializes in integrating these tools into enterprise-level applications systems, creating customized home-grown solutions that meet customer-specific needs. Examples of customized solutions are:

• Integrating OPNET or QualNet with STK for physical layer and mobility modeling
• Using HLA or DIS to integrate OPNET or QualNet with other simulators
• Developing protocol models from real protocol implementation

The C2 Systems Group at Applied Defense Solutions specializes in the development and support of advanced prototypes and operational real-time analysis and visualization systems. By combining experience with real-time systems and expertise with COTS software solutions, the C2 Systems Group provides highly reliable and low-cost solutions quickly.

The C2 Group builds solutions which process, distribute, fuse, and visualize data from many sources. These systems combine standard map (GIS) data with data from other sources such as telemetry from aircraft and ground vehicles, such as live-GPS or FAA radar feeds.

ADS has applied advanced concepts in visual analytics and data fusion to provide operator-friendly and highly efficient, operational systems. Key capabilities of the ADS C2 Systems practice include:

• Established and proven expertise with industry-standard COTS geospatial software systems provided by industry leaders including:
• AGI Technology
• ESRI ArcGIS
• Design and deployment of enterprise level systems and applications

ADS has produced and deployed real-time systems currently used in the industry, such as:

• Operational real time systems
• Advanced real time fusion systems