NASA uses simulation software to design spacecraft, predict satellite orbits, and train astronauts. But modeling and simulation are powerful tools that can generate valuable information anywhere they can be applied. In the early 2010s, a group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) successfully used simulation software to model the data transmissions, storage, and processing within and among all the sub-systems on a hypothetical spacecraft. The team wanted to predict the performance of a possible replacement for outdated, inefficient spacecraft data networks.