Welcome to ASTROLAB

ASTROLAB is a mission analysis desktop application developed by STELLOR SPACE. It combines mission asset modelling, Orekit-based astrodynamics, access computation, coverage analysis, link analysis, power budgeting, lifetime estimation, reporting, and interactive visualization in a single engineering workflow.

The application is designed around the idea that a mission is not a collection of disconnected calculations. A mission is a structured model: spacecraft, ground assets, payloads, antennas, power subsystems, constraints, analysis definitions, and results all live in the same project context.

Design Philosophy

ASTROLAB follows four core principles:

Principle	Meaning
Asset-driven modelling	Mission objects are represented explicitly as reusable assets.
Service-based analysis	Computation is performed by UI-free services, so the same logic can feed dialogs, plots, reports, and future automation.
Traceable results	Analyses store structured payloads, summaries, and artifacts rather than only visual output.
Progressive fidelity	Users can start with simple models, then increase geometry, propagation, RF, power, or environment fidelity as needed.

User Workflow

flowchart TD
    A["Create or load project"] --> B["Define scenario interval"]
    B --> C["Create physical assets"]
    C --> D["Attach mounted assets"]
    D --> E["Apply constraints"]
    E --> F["Create analysis asset"]
    F --> G["Run computation service"]
    G --> H["Inspect plots and reports"]
    H --> I["Refine assumptions"]
    I --> F

Main Object Families

Family	Examples	Role
Physical assets	Spacecraft, facility, target, vehicle	Provide position, velocity, attitude, or geodetic state.
Mounted assets	Sensor, antenna	Inherit parent motion and add mounting plus pointing.
RF assets	Antenna, transmitter, receiver	Represent communication hardware and link budget inputs.
Power assets	Solar array, battery	Represent energy generation and storage hardware.
Environment assets	Space object catalog, AOI	Provide external populations or geographic regions.
Analysis assets	Coverage, link, power, lifetime, path	Store configuration, dependencies, execution status, and results.

How To Read This Documentation

Start with Getting Started if you are new to the tool. Use Assets as the reference for mission objects, then move to Capabilities for analysis workflows. Developer notes are intentionally separated from user documentation so engineering users can focus on configuration and interpretation first.