Lower cost and better quality observation proposals. SEA's interactive proposal browser guides the user through the proposal specification process, increasing efficiency and reducing errors
SEA is used by astronomers on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and is also the foundation for HST's new Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) observing tool system.
2001 NASA Software of the Year nominee
Design and develop software toolset to help scientists reduce amount of time to gather increasingly effective observations needed to propose experiments. To accomplish Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) program objectives, scientists need detailed data concerning the satellite's current state, as well as future resource requirements. Necessary information includes:
- Orbit location and spacecraft attitude predictions
- Field of view, visibility, and shielding requirements
- Spacecraft environmental concerns
- Health and safety maintenance measures
To expedite the proposal process, NASA needed more sophisticated software to synchronize and maintain information, while to validating for accuracy.
Develop software to reduce proposal preparation time by 50-80% (compared to that required for Hubble Space Telescope) and improve the proposal process by providing users with an intuitive, visual, and interactive experience. Software would test new approaches to support scientists in creation, development, and validation of proposals for NGST in-flight telescope observations.
Aquilent created SEA to include the following three tools that address specific observation parameters:
- Visual Target Tuner - Provides users with an image-based environment to interactively and visually specify the elements of a given exposure and search online astronomical catalogs and display images from archives to precisely orient and point the aperture or to mosaic apertures.
- Exposure Time Calculator - Allows observer to interactively and visually experiment with objects, instruments, and observatory parameters to determine how to achieve a desired exposure or image.
- SEA Simulation Facility - Provides users with the ability to simulate and view observation data quality by specifying exposure parameters via a graphical pipeline metaphor.
