Toolset for Post Flight Analysis of ESA Missions

•To develop an open-source software tool that shall make use of a set of inter-related software design and analysis tools that shall allow ESA the post flight analysis of space missions focusing on the following key engineering disciplines: propulsion, aerothermodynamics, trajectories, and structures. •To produce and assess uncertainties and extract performance figures in the above cited engineering domains •To automatically generate reports of the post flight analysis results.

Throughout the life time of ESA missions, (from conceptual design (Phase 0) until disposal (Phase F), an enormous amount of data is generated in each of the phases for the different engineering disciplines: aero(thermo)dynamic data, structural and thermal analysis, models of the propulsion subsystem, design trajectories. The manual extraction, manipulation and aggregation of such large datasets is tedious, time consuming, and prone to errors. Each of those disciplines use different kind of software design and simulations tools across the phases of a given project. A deep post flight data analysis would involve the running of those different tools per discipline, and the exchange of the data between disciplines. A software tool developed specifically to act as glue between different discipline tools with different datasets would allow the extraction of figures-of-merit and uncertainties, and could derive engineering criteria used for further flight vehicle and mission re-design.   Achievements and status: •All the declared objectives have been achieved. •A standard exchange format has been designed and implemented (the Common Data Structure). •A powerful Graphical User Interface is provided along with a flexible Command Line Interface, providing a dual approach to PFAT use. •PFAT has been validated against reference real post-flight data. When these data were not available, realistic synthetic data have been used. Benefits: •PFAT postulates itself as the reference ESA toolkit for post-flight analysis, to be used for ESA and commercial (e.g. launchers, planetary EDL missions).