I am envisioning three new content types (e.g. orbitephem_lt, lunarephem_lt, solarephem_lt?), where the objects are Chandra/Moon/Sun and the type is Predictive – 25 year. The ephemeris itself (position and velocity) would have to be generated by the FOT using STK and provided in a text file. We were thinking that it would be something only updated once every few years. (Perhaps just by replacing the ingest files?) Obviously the fidelity would decrease with time, but it’s not practical to require daily STK runs, and this level of fidelity should be acceptable for most uses.
Perhaps then the other derived ephemeris params (e.g. DIST_SATEARTH) could use the 25 year predictions when other data isn’t available? If I remember correctly, it already prioritizes which ephemeris to use based on what’s available, so this one could be added to the bottom of the list.
I am envisioning three new content types (e.g. orbitephem_lt, lunarephem_lt, solarephem_lt?), where the objects are Chandra/Moon/Sun and the type is Predictive – 25 year. The ephemeris itself (position and velocity) would have to be generated by the FOT using STK and provided in a text file. We were thinking that it would be something only updated once every few years. (Perhaps just by replacing the ingest files?) Obviously the fidelity would decrease with time, but it’s not practical to require daily STK runs, and this level of fidelity should be acceptable for most uses.
Perhaps then the other derived ephemeris params (e.g. DIST_SATEARTH) could use the 25 year predictions when other data isn’t available? If I remember correctly, it already prioritizes which ephemeris to use based on what’s available, so this one could be added to the bottom of the list.