Assessment of Environmental Effects and Protection Systems using ESABASE2
- Paper number
IAC-06-C2.P.1.04
- Author
Dr. Karl Dietrich Bunte, eta_max Space GmbH, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Alexander Langwost, eta_max Space GmbH, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Holger Sdunnus, eta_max Space GmbH, Germany
- Coauthor
Dr. Gerhard Drolshagen, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. John Sorensen, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Year
2006
- Abstract
It is a fact that space engineering tools used for space environment and thermal analysis are ageing. The development of software systems like ESABASE started during the Eighties or early Nineties and core applications and modules remained unchanged since then. Efforts made in the meantime concentrated in the maintenance and extension of the scientific kernel of the application, rather than on the framework and on the user interface. Today, ESABASE is one of the tools which are featuring state-of-the-art environment modelling capabilities coupled with outdated programming methods and data structures, and almost archaic front- and back ends. ESABASE enables the user to construct an articulated analysis model and to perform a variety of space-specific analyses (e.g. space debris and meteoroid flux and damage, atomic oxygen, radiation) on the model along its orbital trajectory. In view of the current situation, ESA took the initiative to port ESABASE to Linux and Windows PC platforms. An initial project was performed to establish a modern framework and an ergonomic user interface for the debris application. This paper provides an insight to the new ESABASE2 software – the result of this activity. ESABASE2 is composed of an up-to-date framework based on Open Source components like the Eclipse Graphical User Interface and the OpenCascade CAD library, and the previously existing well established debris and meteoroid models such as MASTER and the Divine-Staubach model. In addition, the implementation of a new ray tracing algorithm and the integration of NASA’s latest debris model ORDEM2000 constitute a major enhancement of the analyser. This paper introduces the capabilities of the ESABASE2 framework together with the debris application. It will demonstrate the new user interface and some representative application cases addressing spacecraft protection issues. The paper will conclude with an outlook to future extensions of ESABASE2, which will comprise the implementation of existing applications for the analysis of additional space environmental effects.
- Abstract document