Inconsistency between getMinDate/getMaxDate and propagate in EphemerisSegmentPropagator

Orekit development
1

Hello,

When using an EphemerisSegmentPropagator built from an OemSegment, I noticed an inconsistency between the dates returned by getMinDate(), getMaxDate(), and the dates for which propagate() returns a state.

The OEM that I parse to build the propagator contains the fields USABLE_START_TIME and USABLE_STOP_TIME, which are correctly parsed and set in the OemSegment. These are the dates returned by the getMinDate() and getMaxDate() methods.

However, the propagate(target) method still returns a state if target is between the OEM USABLE_STOP_TIME and STOP_TIME (I guess it is the same at the start).

As these “usable” times are introduced to support high order interpolation methods near the boundaries of the OEM time window, I would expect the propagate() method to also respect them, and throw an exception if the requested target date is outside the “usable” interval.

What is your opinion?

Best,
Alberto

2

Hi Alberto,

my opinion is that it’s enough to return the usable start/stop as min/max date, and that like for other BoundedPropagator, it’s the user’s responsibility to propagate beyond these bounds.

Cheers,
Romain.