Astrodynamics in Python
21 Dec 2017 #Astrodynamics #Python| Build Status | Latest Release | Version | PyPi | Last Commit | Activity |
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Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat thinking to yourself “I wish I had a simple way to solve Kepler’s Equation”?
Or maybe “I really wish I had a Lambert solver to find a transfer between these two orbits?”
Well, fear no more as your problems are now solved with the astro package!
Now that my class is finished I can unleash it onto all of you.
It handles all of your astrodynamic needs:
- Transformations between reference frames - Check
- Time conversions - Check
- Two Body dynamics - Check
- Maneuver planning - Check
- TLE processing - Check
- Lambert solver - In work!
- Plotting - Check
- And much more
Installation
It’s very easy to install and use
pip install astro
Available easily through PyPi or Github.
Some things to try
The documentation is still in progress but one implemented functionality is the ability to predict satellite passes.
You can download a list of all visible satellites by running
tle.py visible ./tle.txt
Which will download a list of satellites and save it to the local path. Next run:
predict.py 39.8 -77.0 0.05 -s 2017 12 21 -e 2017 12 25 -i ./tle.txt -o ./output.txt
Which will find all visible satellites for your location, 39.8 N 77 W 0.50 km altitude, over the time span 2017/12/21 to 2017/12/25 and save the results to a text file output.txt
It’ll look a little something like this
THOR AGENA D R/B 00733
PASS MON/DAY HR:MIN(UT) RHO(KM) AZ(DEG) EL(DEG) SAT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 12/ 19 00:19:60 1310.45 97.50 31.45 THOR AGENA D R/B
0 12/ 19 00:20:60 1211.00 73.66 35.65 THOR AGENA D R/B
0 12/ 19 00:21:60 1258.77 48.07 33.73 THOR AGENA D R/B
0 12/ 19 00:22:60 1439.01 28.68 27.45 THOR AGENA D R/B
1 12/ 19 14:14:60 1089.95 216.52 44.83 THOR AGENA D R/B
1 12/ 19 14:15:60 1396.79 209.31 30.46 THOR AGENA D R/B
2 12/ 20 01:26:60 1312.05 201.95 31.19 THOR AGENA D R/B
2 12/ 20 01:27:60 1071.62 220.51 42.71 THOR AGENA D R/B
2 12/ 20 01:28:60 968.92 255.63 50.32 THOR AGENA D R/B
2 12/ 20 01:29:60 1045.52 293.22 44.76 THOR AGENA D R/B
2 12/ 20 01:30:60 1268.92 314.17 33.38 THOR AGENA D R/B
3 12/ 20 13:42:60 1004.65 140.20 51.23 THOR AGENA D R/B
3 12/ 20 13:43:60 1224.60 161.63 37.43 THOR AGENA D R/B
4 12/ 21 00:54:60 1427.52 157.84 27.30 THOR AGENA D R/B
4 12/ 21 00:55:60 1095.54 154.54 41.28 THOR AGENA D R/B
4 12/ 21 00:56:60 853.71 143.30 63.23 THOR AGENA D R/B
4 12/ 21 00:57:60 790.80 39.77 77.78 THOR AGENA D R/B
4 12/ 21 00:58:60 943.38 358.62 53.13 THOR AGENA D R/B
4 12/ 21 00:59:60 1233.41 352.51 35.02 THOR AGENA D R/B
Which gives the time in UTC, range, azimuth, and elevation to see a satellite pass overhead.
Inspiration
Much of this code has been developed over several years from my previous coursework or professional experience. I’ve started to combine it all into a single Python package for my own use, and anyone else who happens to find it useful. A large portion of the code is only possible due to the great work of Dave Vallado and his book:
@Book{vallado2007,
title = {Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications},
publisher = {Microcosm Press},
year = {2007},
author = {Vallado, David A},
edition = {3}
}
There are also several great tools for astrodynamics in Python that have served as great models for what I hope to achieve:
SpiceyPy- a great package to interface with SPICE and a good model for a well constructed Python packagespacetrack- another great package to download TLEs from SpaceTracknumpy- the core package for much of science in Python