Orbit State

The Orbit State defines the shape and orientation of the orbit with respect to the central body. The Spacecraft Object Editor allows entry of initial orbital data, and a visual display of the orbit on a 3D globe. All Spacecraft orbit state properties can also be set via FreeFlyer Script.

There are a variety of Sample Mission Plans (included with your FreeFlyer installation) that demonstrate various applications of these topics. Continue to the Spacecraft Propagation Samples page to view descriptions and images of these examples or jump to one of the Mission Plans listed below.

Spacecraft Propagation Samples

•CCSDS Ephemeris with Covariance

•Drag/Grav/Magnetic Momentum

•Ephemeris Generation

•Highly Elliptical Variable Step Propagation

•Lifetime

•Orbital Decay

•Propagate Spacecraft from SPICE Ephemeris

•Solar Radiation Pressure Modeled using Other Accelerations

Spacecraft Orbit State Properties

•Default values define a sun-synchronous Earth-orbiter with beginning epoch "Jan 01 2020 00:00:00.000000000"

•The Orbit Wizard allows the user to create an orbit or load orbit state data from a file.

•The following properties define the spacecraft orbit state:

Epoch Details

•Allows the user to specify the epoch of the initial orbit state. See Parsing Dates and Times for more information on working with the Epoch Details editor.

Spacecraft Object Epoch Details Editor

Epoch

•The time corresponding to the defined state.

Central Body

•The central body is the celestial object that the Spacecraft state is referenced to.

Element Type and Orbit Definition

•The orbital elements are six independent parameters that describe the shape and orientation of a spacecraft's orbit.

Reference Frames

•The reference frame defines the orientation of the declared elements with respect to the central body.

Spacecraft Orbit Editor

Orbit State

Spacecraft Orbit State Properties

See Also