Products & Services Microcosm's Space Systems Division has enjoyed an international reputation for doing space mission engineering for over 15 years. Our focus is to develop technologies and solutions to reduce the cost of space.

Autonomous Navigation	Autonomous Orbit Control
In 1994 Microcosm demonstrated the first fully autonomous navigation system on-board the TAOS spacecraft using the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Microcosm has extended the system to use GPS inputs and star trackers and has flown elements on several missions since. The TAOS flight software included Microcosm's High Precision Orbit Propagator, HPOP, which has since become the high accuracy standard for precision commercial propagators.	Microcosm's Orbit Control Kit (OCK) will simplify single satellite missions and cost-effectively manage an entire constellation. The technology maintains each satellite in its user-defined stationkeeping box and thus allows simple position prediction without the need for detailed orbit propagation. This allows precise future satellite and payload scheduling, which is a capability never previously available. In addition, the OCK controller demonstrated decreased propellant usage relative to traditional orbit maintenance strategies.
Autonomous Orbit Transfer	Attitude Determination and Control
Microcosm has developed and tested algorithms for fuel-optimal/time constrained orbit transfer. DVGen, a C++ implementation, will investigate and select optimal intercept and rendezvous scenarios based on the distance between the objects orbits and the kind of transfer orbit required. The code can be used as a ground based tool or can fly on-board to facilitate fully autonomous transfer.	Microcosm can design, analyze, integrate and test complete attitude determination and control systems. Our experience, tools, and facilities allow efficient development of ADCS systems for gravity gradient, zero momentum, momentum biased, or thruster controlled systems. AttSim provides quick turnaround performance simulations to support proposal development, rapid prototyping, and IV&V efforts. In addition, Microcosm offers very high quality torquers in custom and standard sizes.

Orbit and Attitude Systems Engineering	Constellation Design and Management
Microcosm enjoys an international reputation second to none in this field. We are, literally, writing the book in orbit and attitude systems by creating the Mission Geometry; Orbit and Constellation Design and Management to replace Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control (edited by the Microcosm President), which has been the industry standard reference since 1978. We have worked virtually every aspect of this problem, including system analysis and design, requirements definition, hardware development and procurement, system integration and test, and on-orbit check-out and anomaly resolution. While greatly varied, our work in this area follows three common threads-working the problem at a systems and mission level, pragmatic solutions that work on-orbit, and looking for mechanisms to drive down cost. We do all three.	The use of autonomous on-board orbit control can dramatically reduce the complexity, cost, and risk of constellation design and management. The system avoids many of the complexities of constellation management, addresses the problems of collision avoidance and RF interference, while providing user capabilities not previously available. In addition to autonomous orbit control, we provide a variety of constellation support services oriented strongly toward reducing system cost.
Formation Flying	Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking
Microcosm has recently extended the current state-of-the-art in formation flying by developing dynamic models based on a linearized state transition matrix methodology. These models go beyond the classical Clohessy-Wiltshire solution and other analogous formulations because they incorporate the effects of the J2 perturbation; allow for the inclusion of applied thrusting, atmospheric drag, and solar radiation pressure; and can be used for formations in orbits with moderate eccentricity.	Microcosm's ADCS capabilities, orbit dynamic models, and orbit transfer software can be used for development of autonomous rendezvous and docking (AR&D) GN&C systems. We have evaluated the application of relative GPS navigation systems to be used in place of, or where GPS is not available. See animations of simulation results: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Video 5 Video 6

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