End-to-End Assessment of Artemis-1 Development Flight Instrumentation
As the space industry continues to strive for more efficient launch vehicles they must rely on increasingly accurate predictive models. Verification of models typically requires physical testing. Flight data measurements offer the most real and therefore the most accurate data for model correlation. As NASA prepares for the inaugural launch of their new Space Launch System (SLS), Artemis-1, they must rely heavily on predictive system models to ensure flight safety. Artemis-1 will be an unmanned scientific mission with the intent of blazing a trail for future manned missions. NASA has implemented a system of Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) in the hopes of recovering useful flight data during liftoff and ascent to aid in correlating their predictive models to ensure human safety in future missions. An end-to-end assessment of the DFI system was performed to verify data acquired during Artemis-1 would be adequate for the targeted flight test objectives (FTOs). This was accomplished using a computational simulation of all sensors and Data Acquisition (DAQ) parameters to investigate any potential problem areas in the current architecture. Input nominal signals were approximated and injected into the system model. Synthesized acquired signals were recovered to verify FTO success.