Slide 10 of 28
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STILL MORE GROUND RULES AND ASSUMPTIONS (Page 4)
It is assumed that the vehicle will be instrumented for flight test. This means that there will be a telemetry data link that inherently contains data needed by the C/S. Rather than have redundant data coming to the C/S via the status data link, send the flight test telemetry data to the C/S and let it parse out the data needed. This will save money and avoid loading the status data link with redundant data. The control station will provide a mission simulation capability. Taking a cue from the VISTA program, the control station will be able to run a simulation independently, or via an umbilical, using the vehicle systems as a “hot bench”. The C/S will also be used to check out vehicle systems prior to flight. There will be at least two modes of vehicle simulation operation, one in which things move, such as flight control surfaces, and one in which non motion use of subsystems occurs. Using the vehicle as the hot bench saves the cost of buying and maintaining a separate rack of avionics for this purpose, and provides the best end to end test of the vehicle before actually flying it. The issue of data link technologies to make them spoof proof, anit-jam, stealthy etc. will be sidestepped here. Initially, plain solid data links will be assumed. This will allow the data link requirements to develop and be proven, at first, in as benign a “data link environment” as possible. Once the system is working, then all the data link technologies can be inserted. It will be be easier to evaluate these if there is a clean control to compare. Also, from a data in - data out standpoint, the data links and the techniques used should be transparent.
