Optics Program Simplifies Analysis and Design

Engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center partnered with software experts at Mide Technology Corporation, of Medford, Massachusetts, through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to design the Disturbance-Optics-Controls-Structures (DOCS) Toolbox, a software suite for performing integrated modeling for multidisciplinary analysis and design. The DOCS Toolbox integrates various discipline models into a coupled process math model that can then predict system performance as a function of subsystem design parameters. The system can be optimized for performance; design parameters can be traded; parameter uncertainties can be propagated through the math model to develop error bounds on system predictions; and the model can be updated, based on component, subsystem, or system level data. The Toolbox also allows the definition of process parameters as explicit functions of the coupled model and includes a number of functions that analyze the coupled system model and provide for redesign. The product is being sold commercially by Nightsky Systems Inc., of Raleigh, North Carolina, a spinoff company that was formed by Mide specifically to market the DOCS Toolbox. Commercial applications include use by any contractors developing large space-based optical systems, including Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Boeing Company, and Northrup Grumman Corporation, as well as companies providing technical audit services, like General Dynamics Corporation