Aerospace Education
“Raise your school’s orbit” with an exciting opportunity to introduce satellite operations into your aerospace curricula or start new aerospace study.
Space Flight Students Can Now Train With Real Spacecraft Control Software from the Hammers Company
In the Space Flight Operations and Training Center (SFOTC) at Capitol Technology University, Hammers’ VirtualSat® dynamic simulation product is combined with Hammers’ guidance, navigation and control flight software, NASA’s open source core Flight System (cFS), and spacecraft telemetry and command ground system, Galaxy®, to simulate spacecraft in orbit.
Are your students eagerly and consistently hired by NASA and private industry directly after graduation?
Do they know how to monitor a fleet of spacecraft in orbit, and react to unexpected events, such as a loss in communications, or a system failure?
Do they learn how to perform spacecraft slews, fire thrusters, monitor spacecraft telemetry, sensors and actuators?
Are instructors able to inject errors into the spacecraft – in the classroom – to train students to detect anomalies and conduct recovery procedures to uplink to the spacecraft?
The Hammers Company’s software that supports NASA missions is now available for procurement by colleges and universities, allowing students to operate virtual spacecraft in real time.
Your students can have access to the collective experience of the Hammers Company, Inc., which has more than 29 years of experience providing software support and products for major satellite programs. Hammers Company products and services are provided to NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the Naval Research Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, UC Berkeley, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and commercial customers worldwide.
Over the years we have contributed to more than 100 satellite missions. Our VirtualSat application facilitates flight software development and build testing; spacecraft integration and test; operations team training; post-launch flight software sustaining engineering; and operations procedure checkout.
Hammers software gives students an edge in getting critical console experience.
Area industry has a reputation for lining up to hire outstanding engineering students in spacecraft operations and related disciplines.
Success Stories near NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
In April of 2017, Capitol Technology University officially opened its Space Flight Operations Training Center (SFOTC) with a major contribution of technology from the Hammers Company. The center employs Hammers’ Galaxy telemetry and command system to control a fleet of simulated “HammersSat” spacecraft based on Hammers’ VirtualSat real-time dynamic simulator. Area industry has a reputation for lining up to hire outstanding engineering students in spacecraft operations and related disciplines from Capitol Technology University, and Hammers’ contribution of software products and engineering services helps the university continue that relationship.
Students can interpret spacecraft sensor data, activate actuators, fire thrusters…
At Capitol Technology University’s SFOTC, Hammers’ Galaxy spacecraft command and telemetry system allows students to function as spacecraft operators and operate virtual spacecraft in real-time. In the SFOTC, Hammers’ VirtualSat dynamic simulation product is combined with NASA’s open source core Flight System (cFS) and Hammers’ guidance, navigation and control flight software to simulate spacecraft in orbit so students can interpret spacecraft sensor data, activate actuators, fire thrusters, perform spacecraft slews, and monitor all spacecraft telemetry in the virtual environment.
Hammers’ VirtualSat also allows the instructor to inject an almost infinite variety of failures and other anomalies. These exercise the FSW’s on-board failure detection and correction algorithms, which help students learn to identify and respond to anomalous conditions identical to on-orbit spacecraft.
International Space Station flight controller stations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. Photo credit: NASA.
“Unless you have a real control center… your students are just reading out of books”
Professors Marcel Mabson and Rishabh Maharaja founded the center with Astronautical Engineering Program Chair Angela Walters. They are excited about opportunities available to students through the center. “Capitol has a unique program with the SFOTC,” says Mabson. “There aren’t many schools that have this capability. Unless you have a real control center with a real spacecraft mission, your students are just reading out of books. And you can teach it out of a book, but you don’t really see it and you don’t experience it.”