As Orekit 9.3 is finally out, we can think about the next development cycle.
A lot of things have been done in the last years that could not be included into 9.3 due to incompatible changes, we had to wait for a major release to include them. I think it is now due time to do a major release, which would be 10.0. I also think it would be nice to have it published really fast, before the Orekit day which is scheduled for May 23rd (save the date!).
The changes currently pending are:
propagation in non-inertial frames, without any central body
(i.e mainly trajectories about Lagrange points)
DSST orbit determination
specialized propagators for all GNSS constellations
some API changes in models (magnetic field, tropospheric models)
changes with the events added by Evan and that requires also publishing a new version of Hipparchus
Other changes I would like to add are:
a working phase measurement class with ambiguity resolution
(the current one is only a non-working stub)
combined measurements (for example iono-free)
improving API for ionospheric models
Some other points that may be worth adding in 10.0 or could wait a future version are:
a feature to automatically feed atmospheric models with solar activity
For the first question, I think that next release should be a major release because many of the projected changes will cause incompatibilities and it is interesting to add them into Orekit, especially because some of these changes are well advanced in development.
For the second question, add the three first changes (ambiguity resolution, combined measurements and the new API for ionospheric models) to the changes currently pending can be sufficient to have an interesting 10.0 release.
If we want to release 10.0 by May 23 I think we need to have a RC by May 15. That is 5 days to finish the remaining issues. Here are the remaining issues I see:
API change for new ionospheric models. Their development can also be added to the 10.0.
Integration of the DSST Orbit Determination
All this jobs a more or less finished. They are waiting for some final validations. However, I think that the 23 of May is a little bit too early for me if I want to finish the job correctly. Moreover, OrekitDay is fast approaching and we have to finish its preparation. In that respect, I think that it is better to postpone the deadline in order to do the release properly. Rather than releasing a wobbly version. What do you think ?
It depends on the time I take to find a bug on one of the new ionospheric model that I am implementing After finding this bug the new ionospheric models will be ready to be merged. After that I need one or two days to check that everything is ok for the DSST OD and approximately one or two other days for the GNSS propagation (JavaDoc, …).
I have pushed my ongoing work on integer ambiguity resolution for GNSS phase measurements.
It is far from complete now but at least is a starting point that could be completed after 10.0 without introducing further incompatibilities.
We should also not forget to ask the translators to update the error messages translation files. They usually need a few days to review the new messages and send the files back.
I just merged branch propagation-in-non-inertial-frame into develop (see #554).
I removed 2 tutorials: EarthMoonL1Trajectory and EarthMoonL2Trajectory because they are not ready yet.
They are still available in branch propagation-in-non-inertial-frame though.
I added the tutorial PropagationInNonInertialFrame, written by Laurene Beauvalet.
Hi Evan,
Besides the current work of Luc on issue #547, we just polish up the code, fixing or updating javadoc and documentation for the maven site. We are about to finish this tedious work.
What about issue #561 ?
I think #561 is rare enough that it would probably never be hit unless someone went looking for leap second bugs. I’ll work on it some the next couple days, but I don’t want to hold up the release for it.