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Assets

Assets are the primary modelling objects in ASTROLAB. They describe what exists in the mission, how it is positioned, how it is oriented, which hardware it carries, which constraints apply to it, and which analyses depend on it.

Asset Families

flowchart TD
    A["AssetBase"] --> P["PhysicalAssetBase"]
    A --> N["Non-physical Assets"]
    A --> AN["AnalysisAssetBase"]

    P --> SC["Spacecraft"]
    P --> FAC["Facility"]
    P --> TAR["Target"]
    P --> VEH["Vehicle"]

    A --> M["MountedAssetBase"]
    M --> SEN["Sensor"]
    M --> ANT["Antenna"]

    A --> POW["Power Assets"]
    POW --> SA["Solar Array"]
    POW --> BAT["Battery"]

    A --> RF["RF Assets"]
    RF --> TX["Transmitter"]
    RF --> RX["Receiver"]
    RF --> ANT

    N --> AOI["Area of Interest"]
    N --> SO["Space Object Catalog"]
    N --> CON["Constellation Node"]

    AN --> COV["Coverage Analysis"]
    AN --> LINK["Link Analysis"]
    AN --> POWER["Power Analysis"]
    AN --> LIFE["Lifetime Analysis"]
    AN --> PATH["Path Analysis"]

Common Asset Metadata

Most assets share a common identity layer:

Field Meaning
guid Stable unique identifier used by the registry and saved projects.
asset_id Human-readable name shown in the UI.
asset_type Type key used by the asset registry and dialogs.
parent_guid Optional parent relationship, mainly used by mounted assets or hierarchy nodes.
active Whether the asset participates in the current project state.

Physical vs Mounted Assets

Physical assets answer spatial questions directly:

  • Where is the asset at time t?
  • What is its velocity in frame F?
  • What is its attitude quaternion in frame F?

Mounted assets inherit translation from a parent asset and add a mounting and pointing layer. This is used for sensors and antennas.

flowchart LR
    P["Parent Pose"] --> M["Mounting Rotation"]
    M --> D["Dynamic Pointing"]
    D --> O["Mounted Asset Pose"]

    O --> FOV["Sensor FoV"]
    O --> GAIN["Antenna Gain"]
  1. Create the scenario and time interval.
  2. Create spacecraft or ground/mobile assets.
  3. Attach mounted assets such as sensors and antennas.
  4. Add RF chain assets such as transmitters and receivers.
  5. Add power assets such as solar arrays and batteries.
  6. Apply constraints to physical or mounted assets.
  7. Create analysis assets that reference the configured mission objects.

Registered Asset Types

The following pages correspond to the asset types registered in AssetTypeRegistry.

Asset type Page Role
spacecraft Spacecraft Orbital vehicle with propagation, attitude, physical properties, and mounted subsystems.
vehicle Vehicle Ground-mobile physical asset driven by waypoint trajectory.
facility Facility Static ground station or site on the Earth ellipsoid.
target Target Static geodetic reference point.
area_of_interest Area of Interest Geographic polygon region used for visualization and coverage filtering.
space_object Space Object TLE catalog population for viewer and environment context.
constellation Constellation Virtual grouping node for spacecraft collections.
sensor Sensor Mounted field-of-view payload.
antenna Antenna Mounted RF antenna with radiation pattern and gain model.
transmitter Transmitter RF source linked to an antenna.
receiver Receiver RF receive chain linked to an antenna.
solar_array Solar Array Mounted power generation hardware.
battery Battery Energy storage asset for power budget analysis.

Supporting Concepts

Page Contents
Mounted Assets Shared parent/mounting/pointing model used by sensors and antennas.
Constraints Shared access/environment constraints available across several asset types.