Space Modeling and Simulation: Roles and Applications Throughout the System Life Cycle

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This book was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Academy Space Mission Analysis and Design Program with support from program offices at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and organizations within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

This book is a must read for engineers in several disciplines, including program management, who have a need to understand contemporary issues associated with modeling and simulation for development and operation of space systems.

The 22 chapters in this work are well suited collectively to enable readers to become familiar with present practices and future prospects in modeling and simulation in this important application area. The first portion of the book explores general issues in modeling and simulation, the essentials of obtaining an appropriate model and a computer simulation based on this model, and how simulation-based acquisition using these principles can yield space systems of major value. This is followed by several chapters that discuss a plethora of important subjects related to specific facets of importance for the space system life-cycle phases associated with the process for engineering these systems. The final chapter discusses likely futures in this area.

The entire package should be of much use to graduate students and professional practitioners in space systems engineering, especially those who are concerned with the role of modeling and simulation in assuring trustworthy cost-effective systems.---Andrew P. Sage, First American Bank Professor on Information Technology and Engineering, George Mason University

This book puts modeling and simulation squarely within the overarching context of systems theory and systems engineering where the subject rightly belongs. The textbook will be most useful as a guide for managers of space system development projects and as a reference for engineers engaged in such developments. To be most effective, the latter need to be introduced to the broader context in which their technical contributions fit--a task that this book admirably carries out.---Bernard P. Zeigler, Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Present, Society for Modeling and Simulation, International