This package is aimed to track a satellite in low orbit around Earth. It has been created in order to help small space centers (from universities for example) to do calculations for their cubesats. But you can use it in any way you want!
- Documentation & reference: https://leorbit.readthedocs.org
LEOrbit will be available on PyPi very soon.
The build is already available on test.pypi.org
Uses pint to handle physical quantities with units. requests and beautifulsoup4 to fetch data on Celestrak and others.
No NumPy or any other heavy library, leorbit wants to be and remain pure Python.
- Position prediction at any epoch of any satellite in LEO (low-earth orbit) with a NORAD catalog ID, or manually fetched GP data, or even state vectors.
>>> from leorbit import get_sat, Time, GPSCoordinates, Timeline, VisibleFromLocation, Q_
# Creates a `Satellite` object from latest GP data, ready to be propagated using SGP4
>>> iss = get_sat(25544)
<Satellite name='ISS (ZARYA)' t₀='2024-03-19T08:52:21.888192+00:00' [SGP4]>
>>> t = Time.now()
>>> c = iss.coordinates(t) # Position at epoch `t` stored here
>>> c.to_gps()
GPSCoordinates(longitude_deg=-90.5461239, latitude_deg=-43.8902309)- Astonishingly easy coordinates conversions from/to any frame, like ITRF, GCRF, or any relative frame created by user.
# Coordinates in GCRF
>>> c.to_gcrf()
Vec3(x=4813.582 km, y=-918.576 km, z=-4714.194 km)
# Coordinates in ITRF
>>> c.to_itrf()
Vec3(x=-46.708 km, y=-4900.222 km, z=-4714.194 km)
# Horizontal coordinates (location=Paris)
>>> gps_paris = GPSCoordinates(2.333333, 48.866667, 0., "Paris (FR)")
>>> c.to_horizontal_coordinates(gps_paris)
HorizontalCoordinates(azimuth_deg=-120.7834, altitude_deg=-60.5245)- Computing intervals where satellite meets conditions like
- Being visible from a certain location on Earth
- Having a certain brightness to an observer
- Satellite enlighten, Moon visible, ...
- ... or any other event created by user
- ... or any combinations of previous event using
intersectionsandunions
>>> now = Time.now()
# Full timeline of computation
>>> simu_tl = Timeline(now, now + Q_("7 days"), dt=Q_("5s"))
# List of time intervals when ISS is visible in Paris
>>> visi_intervals = VisibleFromLocation(iss, gps_paris).compute_intervals(simu_tl)
>>> [interval.human for interval in visi_intervals]
[
"Timeline: from '2024-03-22T22:21:04' to '2024-03-22T22:26:30', duration=5 min 25 s",
"Timeline: from '2024-03-24T03:06:25' to '2024-03-24T03:11:11', duration=4 min 45 s"
]LEOrbit is available with a complete walkthrough the capabilities of the library. Check the documentation with the available examples.
- SDP4 implementation (see https://github.com/Bill-Gray/sat_code)
- Joblib implementation for parallel computations https://joblib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- Orientation tracking for satellites
- Tools to generate a list of commands to send to satellite