Spacecraft Verification Environment – A Data-Driven and Model-Based Hybrid Spacecraft Testing Simulation System

Spacecraft testing is an important activity during the design and implementation of all space missions. Efficient organization and advanced tools can save large time and money spent on testing of spacecraft's software and hardware function. Model based approach has become a very promising solution in spacecraft testing area. Well-designed model-based methods and tools can help reduce costs while increase software and hardware quality at the same time. Based on long term spacecraft testing data, this paper presents a data-driven and model-based spacecraft testing simulation system. The novel simulation system can generate typical testing model by extracting historical testing data, and the formed testing model is able to interact with the existing spacecraft testing system to achieve close-loop simulation. In addition, various numeric model of different spacecraft's subsystems can also be incorporated into the simulation system. In this way, both on-board software and hand-written test case can be verified in early stage, which improves the testing quality and boosts manufacture progress.