Speaker
Mr
Alain LAMY
(CNES)
Description
CelestLab is a free and open source spaceflight dynamics Scilab toolbox developed by CNES that is particularly suited to mission analysis. The toolbox contains about 250 functions related to coordinate systems (IERS 2010 conventions), orbit propagation, geometry and events, force models, orbit properties and more. Lots of examples, demos, help pages and tutorials are provided which makes it easy for new users to get started.
The first version was put on ATOMS website (website from which Scilab modules can be downloaded) at the end of 2009 (see http://atoms.scilab.org/toolboxes/celestlab). The module is one of the most popular as the number of downloads for all versions is now over 34000.
CelestLab is 100% Scilab language, which makes it easy to install or modify as there is no need for compilers for instance. But there are situations where this approach is limiting. This is the case when open source software exists that we would like to use through Scilab. There are at least 2 main advantages to using existing software: less developing and testing effort is required, and also, the features that are made available are guaranteed consistent with the original versions (considered as standards).
That’s why CelestLabX (CelestLab extension module) has been created. It contains low level interfaces to available software. The last version of CelestLab/CelestLabX provides utilities related to TLEs (interface to C code for the propagation of Two-Line Elements from: http://celestrak.com/publications/AIAA/2006-6753) and to STELA (Semi-analytic Tool for End of Life Analysis, tool used at CNES and elsewhere for orbit long-term propagation in particular, see https://logiciels.cnes.fr/content/stela?language=en).
The presentation will show CelestLab contents in more details and will more particularly focus on recent features. Concrete example of mission analyses based on previous work conducted at CNES will also be shown in order to illustrate some typical uses of CelestLab.
| Applicant type | First author |
|---|
Primary author
Mr
Alain LAMY
(CNES)
Co-author
Mr
Thierry Martin
(CNES)
