Mission Scenarios

How scenarios organize satellites, ground stations, timelines, and analyses in Space Mission Designer.

A scenario is the central object in SMD. Everything you analyze — orbits, access windows, power budgets — belongs to a scenario.

What a scenario contains

  • Timeline — the mission start and end dates used by all computations.
  • Satellites — one or more spacecraft, imported (TLE/OMM) or designed from orbital elements.
  • Constellations — groups of satellites generated together (e.g., Walker patterns).
  • Ground stations — fixed sites used for access and communication analysis.
  • Analysis results — propagated orbits, access windows, power and data budget outputs.

Typical workflow

  1. Define the scenario timeline first — propagation and access computations run over this window.
  2. Add satellites and ground stations.
  3. Run computations; results are stored per scenario and can be revisited anytime.
  4. Iterate: modify elements, stations, or subsystems and re-run.

Credits and plans

Computations consume credits based on task type and duration. Free accounts receive 100 credits per month; Pro accounts receive 1,000. See Pricing for details.

Tips

  • Keep separate scenarios for separate trade studies (e.g., “500 km SSO” vs. “600 km SSO”) so results stay comparable.
  • Longer timelines and more satellites cost more credits — start with a few orbits of propagation to sanity-check your design before running full mission durations.