Overview

The SIM Community is an initiative to share and collaborate on simulation software for the Space domain. Currently this includes SIMULUS.

What is SIMULUS?

SIMULUS is a framework which supports the development of simulators based on the ECSS-E-ST-40-07 standard (or as it is commonly known, ECSS-SMP). Its main objective is to streamline and speed up the development of space assets (e.g. satellites) simulators, by providing a wide set of libraries, ranging from base elements to full subsystems, that can be reused:

• On-board computers
• Sensors and actuators
• Spacecraft dynamics
• Environmental models
• Ground control interfaces
• and many others

The following screenshot shows how a simulator based on SIMULUS looks like:

On the left side, is the Simulation Tree that is used to navigate through the simulation nodes. In the top middle is the ScriptHost where scripting actions can be performed on the simulation nodes. At the top right is a Data Display, displaying the date of some fields. At the bottom is the Message Display that shows the log messages emitted by the simulator. The status bar at the very bottom, shows the various times: Simulation Time, Epoch Time, Zulu time, Start of Mission Time, Mission Elapsed Time and Speed factor (how fast the simulation is running compared to real time).

More details about SIMULUS can be found in the SIMULUS Introduction.

Is SIMULUS only supporting Space/Satellites?

Not really. Although the origin and main target of SIMULUS development is satellites, many parts of SIMULUS can be use for any kind of simulation. In example, one can take SIMSAT (simulation kernel) and parts of GENM (Generic Models) to develop a simulator for trains, or one can take EMU (Emulator) and use it to emulate a SPARC CPU.

Who is using SIMULUS?

SIMULUS is used by several organizations such as European Space Agency (ESA) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) to develop Operational Simulators for their missions, covering many different mission profiles such as Science, Astronomy, Asteroid tracking or Earth observation, as well as ranging from inter-planetary (Deep-Space), Geostationary (GEO), to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions. It is also used by a wide range of private companies that leverage on the years of experience provided by the above organizations to bootstrap their own developments.

Who is developing SIMULUS?

SIMULUS is originating from the European Space Agency - European Space Operations Centre (ESA/ESOC), where it has been in constant development and update for more than 20 years. With the transition of the software to the SIM Community, the goal is to facilitate other organizations and individuals not only may make use of this software but also feel encouraged to contribute and help develop SIMULUS for the next 20 years.