Glossary¶
Words you will see in the product
Product terms as they appear in ASTROLAB. Field-by-field lists live on the asset and analysis pages.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
.astrolab |
Mission file you export or open. Same document on Web and Desktop. |
| 2D Viewer | Scenario tab (Web) or 2D Mission Viewer Settings (Desktop): map imagery, day/night lighting, imagery boost. |
| 3D Viewer | Scenario tab (Web) or 3D Mission Viewer Settings (Desktop): globe lighting, overlays, Sun/Moon display, Earth frame, debug axes. |
| Access | Times when a geometric (and constraint) relationship is true — for example a satellite in view of a station. |
| Activity Log | Message list under the Mission Tree (apply, save, scene, analysis). First place to look when something did not appear. |
| ACQUISITION-LEG wait | Discrete facility-tasking: time from that facility pass until the same satellite sees the AOI target (imaging only, not the wait to the station). |
| Acquirer | Who provides coverage (spacecraft, sensor, or a constellation expanded to members). |
| Active | When off, the asset is skipped in scene refresh and typically in analyses. |
| Analysis | A study item in the tree (Coverage, Link, Power, …). Configure → Apply → Run Analysis → Dashboard / overlays. |
| Antenna | Mounted RF aperture (pattern) on a spacecraft or vehicle. |
| AOI | Area of interest — a region on Earth (country, polygon, or global layer such as All Land) used by coverage. |
| Apply Changes | Writes the Properties edit into the mission and updates the scene. Required for General / Environment and assets; not required for 3D / 2D Viewer toggles. |
| Asset | An item in the tree: spacecraft, facility, sensor, analysis, … |
| Attitude | How the spacecraft is oriented (for example nadir). Points sensors, antennas, and arrays. |
| Battery | Energy storage on a spacecraft (SOC over the scenario). Used by Power analysis. |
| Central body | Body the mission is referenced to. Analyses use Earth. The 3D camera can instead centre on the Moon. |
| Chain outcomes | Discrete facility-tasking result: never tasked / tasked-no-image / acquired, usually by origin facility. |
| Clear Scene | Removes graphics from the viewer. The mission document is unchanged. |
| Cloud library | Missions stored on your Web account (Engineering Portal). Counted against plan quota. |
| Completed | Analysis finished successfully. Generate plots; overlays appear in Design when the study has them. |
| Connection network | Declared links (ground and space) used by routing and latency. |
| Constellation | Walker grouping generated from a seed spacecraft. Members stay ordinary spacecraft. |
| Constraint | Extra filter on access (elevation, range, eclipse, illumination, …). |
| Continuous coverage | Coverage mode that paints a grid over the domain (percent covered, gaps, heatmaps). |
| Coverage | How well acquirers serve a region or a set of events: Continuous (grid), Discrete (events), or Static (fixed points). |
| Dashboard | Centre view for plots and report tables. Pick an asset, a template, then Generate. |
| Demand event | One Discrete request (born in the AOI, or at a facility then aimed at an AOI point). |
| Design | Centre view for the live 3D / 2D scene (globe, playback, overlays). |
| Dirty * | Edits not yet applied. Click Apply Changes. |
| Discrete coverage | Coverage mode that generates demand events and asks who captures each one (AOI-born imaging, or facility tasking). |
| Earth-fixed (ECEF) | 3D view frame: Earth rotates under an Earth-fixed camera. 2D is always this map. |
| Earth inertial (ICRF) | 3D view frame: inertial camera; stars/Earth orientation follow inertial motion. |
| Engineering Portal | Account area (Overview, Missions, plan, preferences). Account in the top bar; Mission returns to Design. |
| Environment | Scenario tab: Sun/Moon ephemeris, optical climate, RF/ITU climate for analyses — not the same as Show Sun/Moon on 3D Viewer. |
| Ephemeris | Position versus time (propagated orbit or an imported file). |
| Export | Download the current mission as a .astrolab file. |
| Facility | Ground station (lat/lon/alt), often from the station database. Used for tasking, links, and downlink. |
| Facility tasking | Discrete demand: the request is born at a checked facility; the same acquirer must see that station first, then the AOI target. |
| Failed | Analysis did not finish. Read Properties or the Activity Log (missing target, empty geometry, or a plan limit). |
| Follow | Right-click a spacecraft marker in 3D to lock the camera and show the model. Untracked spacecraft stay as markers. |
| FOV | Field of view of a sensor. Together with pointing, it shapes the swath on Earth. |
| Ground elevation | Constraint: minimum elevation angle at a facility (or similar ground geometry). |
| Ground track | Sub-satellite path on Earth over the scenario. |
| Graticule | Meridians and parallels drawn on the globe (3D Viewer overlay). |
| ISL | Inter-satellite link on a connection network. |
| Keplerian | Default propagator: two-body orbit from the initial Keplerian / state elements. |
| Latency | Delay from acquisition to delivery, using coverage results plus a connection network. Pickup on Discrete is TOTAL. |
| Lifetime | Analysis: drag-driven time to re-entry (or similar end-of-life). |
| Link | Pairwise access between two assets, with an optional RF budget. |
| Link budget | RF quality on a link (margin, atmosphere, antennas) — beyond geometry-only access. |
| Mission | One ASTROLAB study: scenario + assets + analyses, stored as cloud library and/or .astrolab. |
| Mission Tree | Left-column list of everything in the mission. Select a row to edit it in Properties. |
| MLTAN | Mean local time of the ascending node (hours). Sets the SSO lighting family (for example 6.0 h dawn–dusk, ~10 h morning optical). |
| Mounted asset | Sensor, antenna, or similar attached to a parent (spacecraft or vehicle). Add from the parent, not from a global folder. |
| Nadir | Attitude law: spacecraft +Z toward Earth centre (typical Earth-observation starting point). |
| Orbit design wizard | Orbit tab helper (SSO, LEO generic, …) that writes Keplerian / state fields into the document. |
| Plan | Web entitlement tier (Trial, Basic, Pro, …). Caps window, step, constellation size, coverage mode, export, … |
| Plan limit | Cap on your Trial or paid plan. ASTROLAB explains the block and how to stay inside or upgrade. |
| Playback | Scene transport: play, reverse, pause, stop (jump to start), speed (1x, 2x, …), and editable UTC. |
| Power | Analysis: generation, loads, and battery SOC over the scenario. |
| Propagator | How the orbit is advanced in time (Keplerian, Eckstein–Hechler, DSST, Numerical). Apply Changes uses that choice on the globe. |
| Properties | Right-column editor for the tree selection. |
| Propulsion | Tank + thruster on a spacecraft (chemical or electrical). Editor and analyses land in later Beta builds. |
| Receiver | RF front-end (Simple / Complex), usually with an antenna. |
| Refresh All | Rebuild the whole 3D scene. Prefer Apply Changes on the asset you just edited. |
| ReportGraph | Plot and report templates in Dashboard (and Desktop Report & Graph Manager). |
| Routing / Path | Multi-hop path on a connection network. |
| Run Analysis | Executes the selected study. Tree menu or the button at the bottom of Properties. |
| Save | Write the mission to the cloud library (Web; counts toward quota). |
| Scenario | Mission time window, step, environment, and globe display (3D / 2D Viewer). Root of the Mission Tree. |
| Scenario time step | Sampling interval for dynamics and analyses. Trial / Basic minimum 120 s; Pro 60 s. |
| Seed spacecraft | Bus copied by Create Walker Constellation (orbit, attitude, payloads as inherited). |
| Sensor | Mounted optical (or typed) instrument. Coverage can acquire with the sensor FOV or with spacecraft line-of-sight only. |
| Sensor swath | Footprint drawn on the globe when Show sensor swath is on. |
| Solar array | Power panels on a spacecraft. Used by Power analysis. |
| SSO | Sun-synchronous orbit. Designed from altitude + MLTAN in the orbit wizard. |
| Space object | Catalog / debris population in the scene (visual today; SSA analyses later). Not a mission spacecraft you fly. |
| Spacecraft | Orbital vehicle: orbit, attitude, and parent for payloads. |
| Stale | Previous analysis results no longer match the current mission — run the analysis again. |
| Static coverage | Coverage mode: a fixed set of points (count + seed), then how that sample is served. |
| Station keeping | Analysis: LEO/GEO maintenance and Δv. |
| Target | Geographic point asset (not an AOI region). |
| TASKING wait | Discrete facility-tasking: time from request birth until a satellite sees the origin ground station. |
| Terminator | Day/night boundary on the Earth in 3D and 2D when globe lighting is on. Moves with UTC. |
| TOTAL wait | Discrete: time from request birth until first geometric see of the AOI target (tasking + imaging in facility mode; the only delay in AOI-born Discrete). |
| Transmitter | RF source (Simple / Complex), usually with an antenna. |
| Trial | Default Web plan after signup (typically 7 days, 12 h scenario, 120 s step, one cloud mission). No card required. |
| UTC | Scene clock (YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss). Edit and press Enter to jump inside the scenario window. |
| Vehicle | Waypoint / trajectory platform (not an orbiting spacecraft). |
| Walker constellation | Fleet generated from a seed: N satellites, P planes, phasing F. |
| Walker Delta | Walker pattern with RAAN spread over 360°. |
| Walker Star | Walker pattern with RAAN spread over 180° (polar-style). |