Full name of the package: RASTRON
Developer authors and institution: V. Yakimov, Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, Moscow, 117810, Russia.
Purpose: Long term orbit prediction, and help in scheduling scientific observations for RADIOASTRON. Includes a lot of parameters of the spacecraft for simulation of spacecraft dynamics. Also a very extended list of angular constraints of on board devices and ground network are included.
Intended Audience: RADIOASTRON technical personnel and operations personnel, also potential space VLBI investigators using RADIOASTRON
Hardware Requirements: IBM PC/AT 80286 or compatible machine with coprocessor and 4Mb free space on hard disc.
Software Requirements: The package comes precompiled with all of the parameter files. For using the graphic options a package called GRAFOR (Russian software product) is needed which is included in the distribution package.
Capabilities: Package has two modes of simulation, called dynamical and scientific. The dynamical simulation allows long term prediction of satellite positions taking into account gravitational and nongravitational effects on the satellite motion. The output of this option are the state vectors of the satellite for the given time period. The output also used by the scientific simulations mode which produces numerical arrays for the graphic options to show the simulation results. Graphic display of source observability timeline for the ground telescopes, satellite line of sight timeline for the telemetry stations including tabular output, observable regions of the sky taking into account all the satellite constraints is also included .
User Interface: Sequential keyboard driven menu system. Plus an editor to modify parameter files. (But any editor can be used.)
I/O Data Format: Input is via keyboard or disc files. Output is to the screen, disc files or various printers.
Documentation: No manual is available with the package. There are online help files in Russian and ASCii text files in English explaining the use of various functions.
Distribution: Contact with the authors needed. The package is still under development.
Future developments: 1. UV plot option for single source and for whole sky coverage. 2. User manual in Russian and in English.