MAnE - The Mission Analysis Environment for Heliocentric High-Thrust Missions.

By combining its expertise in space mission analysis and optimization and the latest technologies in software design and development, AdaSoft has created the Mission Analysis Environment (MAnE), a new standard of software excellence for the analysis of heliocentric space exploration missions. With the guidance and structure provided by interactive dialogues, the user of MAnE enjoys the benefits of modern "point and click" techniques for defining missions, for selecting options and for specifying program input. Extensive context dependent internal tests help to guard against erroneous or inappropriate entries, and on-line help at both the screen and field levels is provided to assist the analyst in the proper use of the many features. MAnE provides an intuitive and structured approach for entering program data, for reviewing program output in both textual and graphical form, and for invoking any of the numerous utilities and facilities that comprise the environment. MAnE brings the software tools of the professionals to all mission analysts.

MAnE is a robust, flexible, multiple leg mission optimization program suitable for preliminary mission studies of both manned and unmanned solar system missions. Utility programs evaluate and graphically display various events, conditions and information (such as nodal crossings, alignments, close approaches, and locations of celestial bodies) that are essential for the thorough analysis of typical missions. An analytic planetary ephemeris provides an interface to the JPL ephemerides of asteroids and comets and a user maintained database of defined bodies. MAnE interrogates the comet/asteroid file for entries with characteristics satisfying a list of inequality constraints. A program to map trajectory and performance data of single leg trajectories over a user defined grid of departure/arrival dates and to create contour (pork chop) plots from that data. A mission building program that isolates near encounters of the spacecraft with planets, asteroids and comets during the primary mission and/or a mission extension of arbitrary duration (the results present candidates for additional mission targets). An internal graphics module for instantaneously displaying ecliptic projections of planetary, asteroid and comet orbits and the spacecraft trajectory and a program that provides various time and date conversions and date calculations is available.