Description: Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. (Emergent) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) propose to investigate the navigation performance and computational burden of a second-order Kalman filter that uses a new method of computing second-order derivatives using multi-complex numbers, a multi-dimensional generalization of complex numbers. We will develop a prototype of the filter to be integrated into NASA's Orbit Determination Toolbox (ODTBX) in Phase II. We will also investigate techniques to integrate ODTBX and other NASA software such as Optimal Trajectories by Implicit Simulation (OTIS) with NASA's General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT). Integration techniques to be investigated include service-oriented architecture (SOA) and the Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) middleware-based architecture. In Phase I, we will provide NASA with a detailed roadmap for integrating estimation, advanced dynamical theories and other capabilities with GMAT. Finally, we will investigate how GMAT and ODTBX can be incorporated into aerospace engineering curricula and research at Georgia Tech in Phase I and then extend our outreach to other top aerospace engineering universities in Phase II, to help expand the user and developer base for these software packages beyond the NASA civil servants and direct contractors who currently develop and use them.

Benefits: At the completion of Phase II, Emergent will be able to sell navigation and mission design software as a service (SaaS) to commercial, civil and military spacecraft designers as well as aerospace and software engineering services to deploy, train, use and improve a service-oriented package of navigation and mission design software at a variety of commercial, civil and military customer installations. Potential commercial customers of our SaaS or other engineering services related to this product would include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX and others. Other customers would include AFRL and U.S. Space Command. Commercial satellite operators such as Intelsat, Orbcomm and Iridium could also be potential customers.

At the completion of Phase II, Emergent will be able to provide navigation and mission design software as a service (SaaS) throughout all NASA centers as well as aerospace and software engineering services to deploy, train, use and improve a service-oriented package of navigation and mission design software at a variety of NASA installations. Depending on which software package or packages are integrated with GMAT in Phase II, possible NASA mission applications include robotic precursor missions and human missions to asteroids or Lagrange points, robotic servicing missions or missions, or orbital debris removal missions. The second-order Kalman filter being developed under this proposal could be to support the ISS conjunction assessment and collision avoidance maneuver planning processes or other NASA missions with challenging orbit determination requirements