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Version: 4.14

Targets

Targets and their motion relative to your satellite are used to drive ConOps logic and satellite pointing. If your mission's ConOps logic will be driven by the lighting, local time, position, or relative position of a target, define the target here. ConOps conditions can be defined based on line-of-sight status to a target, elevation or range of your satellite from the target, local time or lighting conditions at the target, and other target parameters. Pointing modes can be defined to point (or maximize pointing) of a satellite-fixed vector to a Target (Group) via a Target (Group) Reference Vector, which is defined to point to a Target (Group) defined here.

Targets​

Use the targets table to edit or add targets to an Agent Template. With the exception of Celestial Targets, the targets added here are generic, defined only by their name and type. These generic targets will be mapped to Agents in the Scenario Branch.

This is helpful, for example, if you have a constellation of four identical satellites, A, B, C, and D, which need to interface with the satellites ahead and behind in the constellation. The Agent Template can have targets "AheadSat" and "BehindSat", and the respective satellites can be defined for each satellite in the constellation. For example, we map A's targets to D and B and B's targets to A and C.

There are three kinds of targets to choose from.

  • Ground targets are fixed to the surface of the Earth, specifically the WGS84 ellipsoid. Their location is specified in the Scenario with latitude, longitude, and altitude.
  • Space targets are other Earth-orbiting objects. These could be other satellites targeted by your payload or used for communications crosslink or relay. They are mapped to another Templated Agent or to a Peripheral Agent in the scenario.
  • Celestial targets are natural objects including the Earth and those which are located outside of Earth's atmosphere, such as the Moon and Sun.

Target Groups​

Targets may be grouped together so that only one Routine and one pointing mode are required to capture behavior that is consistent for multiple targets. A target group can be used in place of a single target to define ConOps condition parameters and/or pointing mode directions. Common applications of target groups include ground stations, relay satellites, constellations, and imaging targets.

To create a Target Group, click the "+" on the list of existing Target Groups, and select a target type. When you add an Agent using this template to a Scenario, you will be prompted to select an Agent Group to populate this Target Group.

You can optionally select a subset of Conditions that filter the targets eligible to become the active target. The active target determines the value of the target group vector and thus the target of pointing modes.

At each timestep the eligible target with the highest priority will be chosen as the active target. Thus, if no filtering conditions are selected, the highest priority target will always be active. Priority is currently statically defined in the Agent Group, but dynamic priority is in development.