Use Cases for Flight Mechanics Analysis Tools Interoperability and Component Sharing(NPO-53031-1)

Several NASA centers have developed independent flight mechanics tools to meet the science needs of missions. A NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) assessment was performed to increase the interoperability of three specific tools: Copernicus from Johnson Space Center (JSC), the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) from Goddard Spaceflight Flight Center (GSFC), and the Mission-Analysis Operations Navigation Toolkit Environment (MONTE) from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). All of these tools are utilized in various spaceflight regimes and mission lifecycles (e.g., design, analysis, operations) to generate a variety of products (e.g., maneuver planning, orbit determination, error analysis, trade study, flight products). Each tool was built over the years with specific goals unique to each center, which were based on the science missions they supported, and naturally lead to variations in their capabilities. Before this assessment, these tools were not integrated and could not easily share data, models, or components. The results of the NESC assessment improved the interoperability and component sharing of these flight mechanic tools to increase Agency efficiency and reduce cost.