T-SMAD: a Concurrent Design Tool for Space Mission Analysis and Design

This paper introduces Tools for Space Mission Analysis and Design (T-SMAD), a Matlab based software that provides access to a suite of tools specifically developed to support the preliminary analysis and design of space missions. The underlying principle that guides the development of TSMAD is to support the engineers during the initial stages of mission design. The aim is to significantly reduce the number of design iterations, allowing the evaluation of different alternatives and rapidly evaluate trade-offs. These tools take the form of a user friendly Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) representing the different elements of the space mission architecture along with the various spacecraft subsystems; each of these GUIs belongs to one of the three main modules: payload, mission analysis and spacecraft subsystems design. The software is based on a simple and intuitive system of Input/Output (I/O) allowing the users to quickly and efficiently generate a consistent set of design parameters. An important feature is the system's ability to access a database and present the effects of different design choices in real-time.