ProfileThrustPropulsionModel with variable ISP

1

Hi everyone,

I need to introduce a variable ISP in the ProfileThrustManeuverModel, similar to how the thrust direction and magnitude are currently handled using polynomials. As far as I can tell, there isn’t an existing way to define a non-constant ISP in the model.

At the moment, I see two possible approaches:

  1. Extend the current class to add support for a variable ISP.

  2. Create multiple maneuvers, each with a constant ISP value, assuming the ISP doesn’t change very often.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on these options—particularly the second one.
I’m concerned about how Orekit handles potential discontinuities between consecutive thrust segments with different ISP values.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Davide

2

Hi Davide,

do you have any other forces using the mass?
If not, there is an ugly workaround with a single ProfileThrustPropulsionModel. You would basically handle the mass variations directly in the ThrustVectorProvider.

Cheers,
Romain.

3

Hi @Serrof,

thanks for the responce. I have already exteded the ProfileThrustPropulsionModel with a variable isp polynomial and since within my application the isp and thrust segment are given with the same frequency there was no need to update the section of the detectors.

Davide