The Boeing Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Hughes Aircraft Company

The Directv Group, Inc.

Jeffrey J Gold

Steven R Zammit

David L Koza

John D Haskell

Michael J Surace

Mike W Tolmasoff

Michael F Bybee

Marc J Halcomb

An emulation system includes a central time source generating a time reference and an emulated spacecraft control processor which contains an embedded processor that provides an emulated input/output interface to communicate simulated spacecraft data. The embedded processor processes the simulated spacecraft data and contains a real time clock engine having a real-time clock period. The system further has a first simulation that processes attitude control system data from the emulated spacecraft control processor to simulate an attitude control system of the spacecraft in real-time. The first simulation engine operative to produce sensor data for input to the emulated spacecraft control processor based on the simulated system dynamics and adjusts the real time clock period in response to the time reference.

High fidelity time domain for spacecraft emulation systems

A spacecraft emulation system for emulating the operation of a spacecraft and the operation of a plurality of ground stations is coupled to spacecraft status and control clients that request connections to one of the plurality of simulated ground station ranging and tracking servers. The connection requests are made to a common address with a port address that is unique to a specific ground station. Separate range servers and tracking servers are instantiated for each ground station and return data specific to the ground station. The spacecraft emulation system determines ranging and tracking data for the plurality of simulated ground stations but supplies the data on a ground station by ground station basis. The status and control system transparently determines which ground station is simulated.

Method and apparatus for simulating multiple ground station ranging for spacecraft

A broadband system wherein a mobile user terminal determines a cell set connection with a communications platform using location information provided by a navigation device on said mobile user terminal and a stored database containing a current cell topology for the communications platform.

Methodology for mobile user terminals in broadband systems

A spacecraft emulation system that can emulate both the attitude control subsystem and the non-attitude control subsystem is integrated into a single compact unit. The unit includes an emulated spacecraft control processor for processing attitude control information and an emulated central command and telemetry unit for interfacing simulated spacecraft data. The inlet also includes a first simulation engine that is operative to simulate the spacecraft attitude control system and a second simulation engine that is operative to simulate the spacecraft power, thermal, propulsion and payload subsystems. Both the first and second simulation engines are connected to the emulated spacecraft control processor via a respective bus. A host computer provides the command data and receives the telemetry data from the emulated spacecraft control processor.

Integrated spacecraft emulation system and method for operating same

A system for testing an embedded processor, such as an embedded processor for a spacecraft. The system comprises an Emulated Spacecraft Control Processor (ESCP) which contains the embedded processor, a simulation engine, and a host computer. The emulated spacecraft control processor includes a dual-port memory for emulating the memory for the embedded processor and data transfer logic which monitors cycles of the embedded processor to arbitrate access to the dual-port memory, the data transfer logic is operative to allow an access to the dual-port memory when the embedded processor performs an I/O cycle, wherein the access is performed before a subsequent machine cycle of the embedded processor.

Non-intrusive memory access for embedded processors

A system for testing an embedded control processor for a spacecraft comprises an Emulated Spacecraft Control Processor (24) which contains the embedded processor (26), a simulation engine (12), and a host computer (14). The Emulated Spacecraft Control Processor (24), executing embedded application software, provides an emulated input/output interface for the embedded processor (26) to communicate simulated sensor data, command data, actuator command data, and telemetry data to the simulation engine (12) and the host computer (14). The Emulated Spacecraft Control Processor (24) processes the simulated sensor data and the command data to form the actuator command data and the telemetry data. The simulation engine (12) processes the actuator command data from the Emulated Spacecraft Control Processor (24) to simulate the system dynamics of the spacecraft in real-time, and to thereby produce the simulated sensor data. The host computer (14) provides the command data and receives the telemetry data from the Emulated Spacecraft Control Processor (24).

Growing community of inventors

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey J Gold