A standard library for modeling satellite orbits on a microcomputer

Abstract

Introductory students of astrodynamics and the space environment are required to have a fundamental understanding for the kinematic behavior of satellite orbits. This thesis develops a standard library that contains the basic formulas for modeling earth orbiting satellites. This library is used as a basis for implementing a satellite motion simulator that can be used to demonstrate orbital phenomena in the classroom. This thesis surveys the equations of orbital elements, coordinate systems and analytic formulas into a standard method for modeling earth orbiting satellites. The standard library is written in the C programming language and is designed to be highly portable between a variety of computer environments. The simulation draws heavily on the standards established by the library to produce a graphics-based orbit simulation program written for the Apple Macintosh computer. The simulation demonstrates the utility of the standard library functions but, because of its extensive use of the Macintosh user interface, is not portable to other operating systems. Keywords: Computer programming; Celestial mechanics; Theses. (KR)