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Architecture

How the product is put together

ASTROLAB is one Digital Mission Engineering product: a shared mission model, the same families of assets and analyses, and the same loop of configure → run → inspect on Desktop and Web.

This page is the map. Flight-dynamics assumptions live in Flight dynamics. Plan limits live in Plans and entitlements. Day-to-day clicks live in the User manual.

Open Web App

What you work with

flowchart LR
  Assets["Assets"] --> Mission["Mission"]
  Scenario["Scenario"] --> Mission
  Mission --> Analyses["Analyses"]
  Analyses --> Design["Design — 3D / 2D"]
  Analyses --> Dash["Dashboard — plots and reports"]
Piece Role
Scenario Time window, central body, environment (optical / RF)
Assets Spacecraft, facilities, sensors, RF, power, AOIs, … — the things in the Mission Tree
Analyses Studies you Run (coverage, link, power, lifetime, …)
Design Live globe and map — geometry, overlays, playback
Dashboard Plots and tables from a completed run (does not recompute physics)

You do not operate a separate “engine console”. You edit the mission, apply changes, run a study, and read Design + Dashboard.

Desktop and Web

Desktop Web
Mission model Same document (.astrolab) Same document, stored as a cloud mission
Analysis Runs on the machine Runs in the cloud for the signed-in account
Account / plans Local use; cloud quotas apply when you use Web Signed-in account and plan limits
Scene 3D / 2D Mission Viewer Same idea in the browser

Web is the place to evaluate the product in a browser (Trial needs no card). Desktop is the place for a full local workspace. Feature gaps that remain in Beta are listed under Desktop vs web.

Flight dynamics

Orbits, access, atmosphere, and long-horizon decay are physics models, not a hidden second product. ASTROLAB uses Orekit for that kernel. You choose propagator family, atmosphere, and solar activity in the editors; you do not call a dynamics API.

Details: Flight dynamics.

Plans

On Web, how large a mission may be, which analysis options are on, and how fine a grid you may run are plan limits. When you hit one, the app asks you to upgrade. The published matrix is generated from the same catalogue the product uses: Plans and entitlements.

What this is not

ASTROLAB is a system-level design and analysis environment. It is not a flight operations control centre, and it is not a CAD / mechanical design tool.