Speaker
Description
TUDAT (TU Delft Astrodynamics Toolbox) is an open-source, general astrodynamics toolbox, with a focus on numerical state propagation, that has been under development by staff and students of the Astrodynamics and Space Missions (AS) section of Delft University of Technology (TUD). Since early 2015, the software has been hosted as a github repository and is freely available under the BSD-2 license. Feature documentation and numerous tutorials can be found at tudat.tudelft.nl. For the last several years, TUDAT has become a key part of the Space Exploration MSc curriculum at TUD. Moreover, TUDAT has been used in dozens of MSc projects, 5 PhD projects, and has contributed to over 10 peer-reviewed publications.
TUDAT functionality falls into the following broad categories: numerical propagation of dynamics, precise orbit determination, and mission design & optimization. Key aspects of the TUDAT software are: modular software design, rigorous unit testing, the use of modern computing paradigms, and the use of numerous external libraries.
TUDAT has recently been extended with an input layer that makes use of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) files. This extension currently allows users to propagate orbits numerically using the full power of the TUDAT C++ software. Although the JSON interface does not yet encompass the full TUDAT functionality, there are no fundamental obstacles to fully extending the interface.
