trusat-orbit

Convert satellite observations to orbit predictions

This repo supports the analyses of IOD/RDE/UK positional formatting formats and generation of TLEs at TruSat.org.

TruSat is a citizen-powered open-source tool for space sustainability, crowdsourcing satellite observations to form an independent record of objects orbiting Earth.

• Visit TruSat.org to see the live app
• View the docs to learn more about the project
• Join the Discord to follow the development discussion

Currently, this orbit propagation code is based on a Python port of Scott Campbell’s C++ satfit code base. After initial prototyping, it is an aim of this repo to include OREKit and related tools for more advanced processing of orbit-related calculations.

Getting started with TruSat-orbit

First, we recommend setting up a python virtual environment

We’re still working on a clean environment setup following conversion of the project to a pip-installable packages. A quick start looks something like:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/TruSat/trusat-backend@dev.chris.package#egg=trusat_backend-1.1.0
pip3 install trusat
python -m trusat.satfit

Contents

• iod.py - Utilities for importing, validating, and operating on IOD/RDE/UK positional formatting formats
• tle_util.py - Utilities to import, export, validate and operate on Two-Line Element sets
• satfit.py - Suite of utilities based on and extending Scott Campbell’s C++ satfit code base for reading visual observations and updating TLEs
  • satid.py - Search TLE catalog for possible match to an UNIDentified satellite TLE
  • elfind.py - Generate a provisional TLE from 2-3 IOD records

Tests - Unit tests for the above

• tests_iod.py
• tests_satfit.py
• tests_TLE.py
• tests_profile.py

Run with python -m unittest discover tests/

Dependencies

• Uses Brandon Rhodes python-sgp4 with C++ accelerations
• (Currently) requires Cython for the c-accelerated analyses module
• (Currently) assumes a connection to a database, see [this PR] (https://github.com/TruSat/trusat-backend/pull/111) for setting up your own local copy
• (Currently) requires pulling trusat-backend into the same parent directory as trusat-orbit

Coding Style

Follow PEP 8 for any Python code and the style guide recommended for any other language.

Additionally see Best of the Best Practices

Maintaining Repo

Style Guide With the addition of commits to the master branch are done through PRs (Pull Request).

Releasing Versions

1. Checkout master
2. pull from repo
3. run the unittests
4. create a tag with the new version number, starting with a ‘v’. eg:

git tag v0.1.1 -m "Version 0.1.1 Version Numbering 5. push changes to github git push --follow-tags 7. check verification tools