A Mission-Agnostic Spacecraft System Simulator Toolkit
Development and Implementation for the ESA EnVision Mission
M. Medina León (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
J. Vennekens – Mentor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
J. Bouwmeester – Mentor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
A. Rugina – Mentor (European Space Agency (ESA))
S. Speretta – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
P.P. Sundaramoorthy – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
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Abstract
Within the context of scientific planetary missions – characterized by multi-instrument systems with demanding operational timelines – there is a need for more detailed, system-level analyses grounded in simulation rather than simplified analytical sizing methods. Growing accessibility and proficiency in high-level programming are shifting the paradigm from monolithic software solutions to bespoke script-based analysis in the spacecraft systems engineering process.
This thesis, conducted within the ESA EnVision project team at ESTEC, presents the development, implementation and evaluation of PAS3: a Python toolkit for Accessible SPICE-based Spacecraft Simulations. PAS3 streamlines the creation of ad-hoc, simulation-backed models for discipline-specific analysis, for any planetary mission in its implementation phase. It integrates Andrew Annex’ SpiceyPy, a procedural wrapper of NASA/JPL’s NAIF SPICE toolkit, inside an object-oriented framework extending its accessibility to non-developers. The toolkit was used to develop models for EnVision’s attitude, instrument and platform thermals, and power generation, as well as an interactive web-based 3D mission visualization.
PAS3 is an open-source package under the Permissive European Space Agency – ESA Software Community Licence and is available on the European Space Software Repository.