Dear all,
I simulated observations using a trajectory with impulse maneuvers every now and then. Now I would like to do orbit determination using these observations to reconstruct the trajectory. However, I would like to assume that the impulse maneuvers are unknown. Therefore, I would like to set them to zero in the propagator (expected value) and estimate them along with the other parameters. Is this possible? I couldn’t figure out whether there is an appropriate propagation parameter driver for that.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi @cbamann,
Welcome to the Orekit community !!
ImpulseManeuver class is not a force model but a detector ; and as such, it does not hold, indeed, any parameter that you could estimate in an orbit determination application.
One work around would be to use the ConstantThrustManeuver class, with a very short duration of maneuver, to simulate an almost-impulse maneuver.
Note that you can easily extend this last model to estimate the direction of the ΔV (as it is now, the code only estimates the magnitude of the thrust).
Cheers,
Maxime
Thanks for your quick help, Maxime. That solves my problem nicely. It’s a constant thrust maneuver over a short duration anyway.