International Space Station Traffic Modeling and Simulation

In an effort to provide NASA with an alternative perspective and some insights to the operational planning of the International Space Station ISS, this research developed a simulation environment for the ISS and devised a method to evaluate various altitude strategies. The simulation environment allowed us to incorporate the natural random behaviors which affect the lifetime of objects in low earth orbit. We created prototype models of the operational planning process to analyze current altitude strategy approaches and acquire new strategies from insights observed. In addition, by extrapolating random future solar activity values from the interpolation of historical data, we established a spectrum of possible solar activity rather than just maximum, mean, and minimum values. From this process, we demonstrated a procedure to analyze a strategy using distributions of parameter outputs in response to random inputs.