Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Spacecraft Integrated System Model

Abstract

A mission and vehicle simulation model called the Spacecraft Integrated Systems Model (SISM) was created at the University of Alabama in Huntsville by graduate and undergraduate students. The goal of this model was to simulate various mission scenarios accomplished by different vehicle architectures to explore the design space of missions and vehicles provided by the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) engine system currently under development by NASA and partners. This paper describes the history of development of the SISM and the ways that different programs were interfaced to create a digital simulation of the actual physical NTP engine as one part of the mission model. Programs such as MATLAB, Cameo, LabView, Simulink, Systems Tool Kit (STK), and ModelCenter were used for high fidelity modeling and simulation to provide trajectory analysis, physics modeling, and interactive results viewing. The SISM architecture is modular so that the model can be expanded in the future to simulate both Human and un-crewed missions to Mars and the Outer Planets of the Solar System, including Neptune.