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Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)  

The launch window for an earth satellite mission defines the dates and the times of day that a satellite can be launched and satisfy the mission constraints. The Parametrized Investigation of Launch Opportunities and Trajectories (PILOT) program was developed to perform mission simulation computations that yield data for use in delimiting optimum launch windows. The PILOT program performs parametric scans of a user specified trajectory over launch date and initial right ascension of the ascending node. During each scan various mission parameters are generated and output to a data file.

The CoPILOT utility program is used to read and format the PILOT generated data file. The user specifies acceptable limits on the various PILOT generated parameters, CoPILOT checks the data, and generates an output table with notations of any constraint violations. Any time that no constraints are violated, an acceptable launch time exists. For each date, the acceptable launch times are printed. A printer plot may also be generated to visually display the launch window. (Computer Sciences Corp. for NASA Goddard)

The italicized text above is from the official NASA release to COSMIC. If you would like to examine the source code for this program, you may download pilot.zip and explore. I have no references, test cases, or input guides for this program. I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions.

PDAS home > In Progress > Pilot
Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)