Joel D. Offenberg (Raytheon STX), Eric P. Smith, Pierre Bely (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Reference URL: http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/SimNGST
Constructing a complex space telescope requires juggling many competing factors. Almost every choice you can make involves the cost, the science return and/or the size of the telescope. What choices must be made to design a telescope that is powerful enough to see the most distant galaxies and is light enough to be launched on a medium-sized rocket without spending more than $900 million?
The NGST Mission Simulator (``SimNGST'') models the work that astronomers, scientists and engineers at several institutions are doing for NASA today. We employ the NGST Design Reference Mission to construct our science objectives. These goals are mated with several cost models to assess the impact of design changes on the mission cost and science return.
SimNGST is written in JavaScript and is available via the WWW in both expert and novice modes at http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/SimNGST.