Facet-based SRP models development in Orekit

Orekit development
1

Would the community be interested in going beyond just cannon-ball model for SRP modeling? For instance, facet-based SRP modeling as in the reference: https://doi.org/10.2514/1.60577

I would like to develop and integrate the same if there is good enough interest in using the same.

Thanks!

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Hi @apoorvatejaswik,

Welcome to the forum !!
And thank you for your contribution proposal, that’s greatly appreciated!

However, know that there is already a facet-based SRP and drag model in Orekit :wink:
It’s called the BoxAndSolarArraySpacecraft.
For a long time, it could only model one set of drag and SRP properties for a given spacecraft. But @luc improved it a few months back (see this closed issue) and now each facet can have its own properties.

Now the model in Orekit is probably not perfect and I admit I haven’t read your reference yet so I don’t know if it will suit your needs.
What I invite you to do is to check the features in BoxAndSolarArraySpacecraft class and, if you need some improvements, propose an enhancement of the class or a whole new class that would cover your requirements.

Hope this helps,
Maxime

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Edit: I’ve read the abstract of the paper you give as a reference and it is indeed much more complicated than what we already have.
Orekit does not have neither shadowing nor a bidirectional
reflectance distribution function model.