XMbodyinfo was designed to evaluate potential reference trajectories, providing a proficient way to assess the quality of all satellite body flybys for a Cassini type mission tour. It is autonomous and will generate a variety of ORS (optical remote sensing) and FPW (fields, particles, and waves) plots that aid in the evaluation, qualification, selection, and improvement of a potential tour (see figure).

Individual Flyby Groundtrack Plot is color coded with altitude and phase angle (polar projection). This is one of a number of plots provided by XMbodyinfo.
XMbodyinfo attempts to streamline the tour design process. More specifically, it attempts to streamline the approval process, interaction, and subsequent iteration that must occur between the tour designers and the science teams during the design and development of a tour.

It can quickly produce various geometry plots and ground tracks for Saturnian satellite flybys when given an input trajectory, a C/A (closest approach) time in SCET (Spacecraft Event Time), and a flyby label. All instrument teams and science disciplines used this tool extensively to aid in the selection of Cassini’s extended mission tour.

This work was done by Chris Roumeliotis and Bradford D. Wallis of Caltech for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This software is available for commercial licensing. Please contact Daniel Broderick of the California Institute of Technology at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Refer to NPO-46482.