Case Study: Airbus Defence and Space achieves sub‑5‑minute JUICE mission simulations and 30% faster development with MathWorks (Simulink, SimEvents, MATLAB)

Airbus Defence and Space Simulates Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission Data Flows

Airbus Defence and Space needed to validate operational concepts and simulate payload data flows for the JUICE mission, including instrument-generated streams, SSMM storage, and X/Ka‑band downlinks, with the requirement that a 15‑day mission simulation run in under 10 minutes. They worked with MathWorks, using MATLAB, Simulink, and SimEvents to create event‑driven models that let operations architects tune parameters (directories, priorities, error rates) and run what‑if scenarios before the preliminary design review.

Using MathWorks tools, the team implemented a configurable discrete‑event simulator (Equipment, SSMM Directories Manager, and Downlink Band Management blocks) and a MATLAB App Designer GUI for easy configuration and analysis. The MathWorks‑based solution exceeded performance targets—15 mission days simulated in under 5 minutes—enabled about a 30% reduction in development time, and supported simulation of key mission scenarios to optimize data latency, storage, and downlink behavior.

Airbus Defence and Space

Alexandre Cortier

R&D Engineer