Access computation between satellite and moving objects like aircraft or ship?

Orekit usage
1

Hi, forum!
I have test the access detector between satellite and ground station, the results works fine. And I wonder is there a way to compute access between satellite and moving objects like aircraft or ship?

2

Yes, you can do that using InterSatDirectViewDetector. It will even work it the secondary object is not a satellite but an aircraft, if you can provide a PVCoordinatesProvider representing its trajectory (for example using some waypoints, interpolation and frames transforms).

3

Thanks luc! That’s really quick!
Can I put PVCoordinatesProvider position update in a StepHandler class during satellite propagation? How can I retrieve the data from StepHandler class ?

4

If you write your own implementation of PVCoordinatesProvider, you can do whatever you want in this implementation. If you keep a reference from the step handler to the provider or vice versa, they can exchange data. You must be aware that the step handler and the events detector are called directly by the propagator hence the propagator drives time evolution. Then the event detector will call the coordinates provider. If you are considering an aircraft, I guess you will already have the flight plan and can in fact fill up the provider with the full trajectory. You must also be aware that the event detector and step handler may seem to be called slightly out of sync since the propagator must anticipate events. Since version 11.0, the synchronization between handleStep and eventOccurred is now more logical, but the g function will still be called ahead of time, and this cannot be changed, so your coordinates provider should probably already have the full trajectory available.

5

Thanks again!
It’s quite clear now, I will try it later.