Press Release: Orbit Logic Awarded Air Force SBIR Contract
GREENBELT, MD, (January 23, 2012) -- Orbit Logic Incorporated has been awarded an SBIR contract by the United States Air Force to explore deploying its collection planning and scheduling software to the ultimate high ground: onboard the satellite.
Mission planning, scheduling, collection planning and tasking have traditionally been performed on the ground, with the resulting plans being transmitted to the satellite for execution. Moving the decision-making to the satellite enables much more agile responses to changing events and environments, including queuing by sensors onboard the satellite itself. Orbit Logic will research how its existing (ground-based) planning and scheduling algorithms and software might be modified to run onboard, and also consider alternative algorithm approaches. The Phase I effort will include the definition of use cases and hardware and software interfaces, and will culminate in the development and demonstration of an onboard planning software prototype running in a simulated flight hardware environment.
Orbit Logic will be working with Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. as a partner on this contract. Emergent's experience with onboard processing architectures and software will help ensure a successful migration of Orbit Logic planning software to onboard flight systems.
“This SBIR contract is the beginning to the final phase of our effort to
bring our planning and scheduling software to new platforms." said Alex
Herz, president of Orbit Logic. "With the advances in planning automation
that we have brought to the aerospace community over the past 10 years, it
only makes sense that our software would eventually find its way onto the
satellite itself, enabling the ultimate responsiveness to changing events
and environments. ”
Alex Herz, President of Orbit Logic.
Orbit Logic Incorporated (www.orbitlogic.com) located in Greenbelt, MD, is a world leader in advanced mission planning and scheduling solutions. Orbit Logic is best known for the suite of mission planning software and products such as: STK/SchedulerT, Collection Planning and Analysis Workstation (CPAW), the web-based Collection Feasibility Tool (CFT), and the Sibyl App for mobile devices. Orbit Logic product and system offerings are supported by comprehensive engineering services for all program phases, and a technical team ready to support any customer-unique needs.
Emergent Space Technologies (www.emergentspace.com) headquartered in Greenbelt, MD, is a Small Business specializing in the research, development, and application of advanced satellite GN&C, communication, and information technologies. Customers include NASA, DARPA, Air Force and ORS. Emergent has additional offices in Denver and Colorado Springs, CO; Houston and Austin, TX; and Albuquerque, NM.