Facility¶
Asset reference
Concept¶
A facility is a fixed ground station: a geodetic site that sees the sky above a minimum elevation, may host antennas and receivers, and often terminates downlinks in link, network, or latency studies.
Facilities are the usual “ground end” of space–ground access. Database presets speed up realistic siting; COMM fields describe buffer and rate limits for data-flow style analyses; constraints (especially ground elevation and range) shape when contacts are valid.
Default vs User database¶
The catalog is a library. Instantiating a site still creates a normal facility asset in the mission. Analyses never select “KSAT” as one object.
| Layer | What it is | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Default database | STELLOR public catalog (KSAT, ESA Estrack, AWS, SSC, NASA DSN/NSN, …). Shared for all users. | Not copied into each mission or user folder. |
| User database | Per-account UTF-8 CSV. Header: name,lat_deg,lon_deg,alt_m,network. Decimals with point (40.4168). Excel EU (; columns, comma decimals) is accepted. Max 200 rows. Upload replaces the previous catalog. |
Not a new asset type. Upload does not instantiate facilities until you pick a station or Add entire. |
| Add entire {network} | Creates one facility per site (reuses a blank Facility N slot). Plan facility cap applies (Trial 2, Basic 10, Pro 20, Enterprise 100). |
Not available for the NASA/NOAA antenna-ID dump. |
| Tree folder | If two or more facilities share catalog_network, the tree shows a non-selectable group. Right-click → Apply All Changes (push all stations to the 3D scene) or Delete Network. |
Not a Link / Coverage target. Connection Network From/To can pick {network} - All Stations; that still expands to individual facility GUIDs. |
Coordinates in Default are approximate public reference points, not a certified operational catalogue.
When to use¶
| Use a facility when… | Prefer a target when… |
|---|---|
| You model a ground station with RF / elevation masks | You only need a geographic point without COMM buffers |
| Link, Connection Network, or Latency terminates on ground | The point is a surveillance / imaging aim point only |
Parameters¶
Identity & position¶
| Parameter | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facility database | select | — | Default catalog grouped by operator. Add entire {network} creates one facility per site (plan cap applies). User CSV: UTF-8 name,lat_deg,lon_deg,alt_m,network with decimal point. |
| Name | text | — | |
| Active | checkbox | — | |
| Latitude [deg] | decimal | 40.4168 |
|
| Longitude [deg] | decimal | -3.7038 |
|
| Altitude [m] | decimal | 650 |
|
| Footprint radius [m] | decimal | 100 |
Web visualization helper |
| Color | color | #FFA500 |
|
| Model scale | decimal | 1 |
|
| 3D model path | text | optional |
Facility Properties — database preset, geodetic site, model.
COMM and constraints¶
COMM is the ground half of a Latency hop (and the command origin in Discrete facility-tasking). How the spacecraft bus fields map into Latency is on Spacecraft — COMM. Planner: ISL routing.
flowchart LR
Sat["Spacecraft Downlink Data Rate"] --> Hop["Hop = min of the two"]
Rx["Facility Max. RX Data Rate"] --> Hop
Hop --> Done["delivered_at + Processing Latency"]The COMM section groups the fields by link: Receive from spacecraft · Transmit to spacecraft · Ground processing. The (i) button explains every parameter.
| Field (editor) | Default | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Max. RX Data Rate | 450 Mbps | Ground ingest from spacecraft X-band. The dump hop is min(spacecraft Downlink Data Rate, this). |
| Max. TX Data Rate | 2 Mbps | Ground → spacecraft command / TT&C. Sizes the uplink of a tasking order (Coverage facility-tasking). Not the dump ingest rate. |
| Max. Concurrent RX Links | 999 | How many spacecraft may dump into this station at once. The default never binds; lower it only if you model a bottlenecked polar dish (for example 1 or 2 antennas). Older missions saved with 0 keep reading it as unlimited. Static Session uses it too: each spacecraft relaying sessions to this station takes one. |
| Processing Latency | 0 s | Added to dump delivered_at at this gateway (ground processing after the file lands). CGR counts it when choosing the station, so a slow station can lose to a later pass over another one. The station itself has no storage limit. |
Constraints use the same catalogue as spacecraft (Range, Ground elevation, Eclipse, …). Add constraint starts from a Range 0–2000 km template; you can change type and Remove. On Web the facility cards do not expose Enabled or numeric parameters (those editors are on spacecraft / vehicle).
Facility Properties — COMM (RX/TX rates, concurrent RX, processing).
Allowed children¶
sensor · antenna · transmitter · receiver · solar_array
Example¶
- Pick a database station, Add entire network (KSAT, ESA, AWS, …), or upload a User database CSV.
- Each created site is a normal facility in the tree (optionally grouped under the network name). Link and Coverage tasking still select individual stations. Connection Network can pick {network} - All Stations as one From/To end.
- Add a receiver (+ antenna if Complex RF).
- Use the facility as Link secondary or Connection Network endpoint.