Environments WorkBench-an official NASA space environments tool

The Environments WorkBench (EWB) is an integrated software tool for evaluation and prediction of space environments in low Earth orbit (LEO). EWB v5.0 was unveiled in 1997. It is the official International Space Station (ISS) plasma prediction and verifications tool, and has been adopted as the official integrated tool of the national Space Environments and Effects program. In this paper, we describe the history of the tool and the motivation behind an integrated software tool for LEO space environments and effects, the software architecture, the capabilities and features of the code, the environments and effects it enables one to evaluate, the code verification and validation, and the method by which it can be used to make initial LEO hardware design easier and faster. Sample analyses of LEO spacecraft are given, and we conclude by describing how the code may be obtained, and on what platforms it will operate.