Addressing the challenges of aerospace and defense initiatives using software analysis tools
Aerospace engineers and operators have to manage tremendously complex geometries that change over time. Not long ago, engineers performed this detailed analysis with pencils, paper, slide rules, and sheer brainpower. The introduction of the calculator accelerated the industry’s growth and, soon after, the evolution and integration of computers dramatically increased efficiency and productivity. Aerospace, defense, and intelligence professionals are now poised to take the community to a whole new level through mission-specific software technology advancements. By leveraging sophisticated analysis tools, which incorporate dynamic twoand three-dimensional visualization to significantly aid in understanding and comprehending the information, users can attain new heights of productivity. Complex problems that once took weeks or months to complete, now take only seconds or minutes when employing software capabilities. In many cases, analyses that were impossible to even contemplate are now quickly and easily completed, and their results have yielded major advancements in the industry and the world. This keynote address will discuss and demonstrate how commercially available software tools are currently used by the aerospace and defense communities to make missions and programs a reality. Six major themes will be discussed with each demonstrating examples of real-world success stories such as those highlighted below: Defense and intelligence programs – Command centers worldwide use the Constant Sentinel software system to depict the location and status of surveillance assets and the targets they generate. All fused into a single coherent display, the situational awareness provided helps commanders allocate resources, spot trends, and make decisions faster than our enemies can react. Anomaly resolution and deorbits – Software technology played an integral role in the explanation and visualization safely deorbiting the Mir space station. In the Moscow mission control center, different software packages were integrated to create three-dimensional animations of the reentry process and confirm astrodynamic calculations. To help the world better understand this historic event, CNN used software to broadcast 3-D animations worldwide to illustrate the entire deorbit sequence, as well as to provide a live simulation of the orientation and location of Mir throughout its final orbits, reentry, and debris break up. Commercial space applications –Space Imaging’s IKONOS 2 operations center employs the power of software within its scheduling processes to determine time periods when the satellite can satisfy requests for highresolution imagery. Various constraints on these times, such as ambient lighting and imaging geometry, are modKEYNOTE ADDRESS