Interplanetary Tutorial
Interplanetary
Trajectories in STK in a
Few Hundred Easy
Steps*
(*and to think that last year’s students thought some guidance would be helpful!)
Satellite ToolKit Interplanetary Tutorial
STK Version 9
INITIAL SETUP
1) Open STK. Choose the “Create a New Scenario” button.
2) Name your scenario and, if you would like, enter a description for it. The scenario time is not too critical – it will be updated automatically as we add segments to our mission.
3) STK will give you the opportunity to insert a satellite. (If it does not, or you would like to add another satellite later, you can click on the Insert menu at the top and choose New…) The Orbit
Wizard is an easy way to add satellites, but we will choose Define Properties instead. We choose
Define Properties directly because we want to use a maneuver-based tool called the Astrogator, which will undo any initial orbit set using the Orbit Wizard. Make sure Satellite is selected in the left pane of the Insert window, then choose Define Properties in the right-hand pane and click the
Insert…button.
4) The Properties window for the Satellite appears. You can access this window later by right-clicking or double-clicking on the satellite’s name in the Object Browser (the left side of the STK window).
When you open the Properties window, it will default to the Basic Orbit screen, which happens to be where we want to be. The Basic Orbit screen allows you to choose what kind of numerical propagator STK should use to move the satellite. Since we want to perform maneuvers, choose
Astrogator from the Propagator pull-down menu. This changes the Basic Orbit window to look like the one below.
5) Notice at the top that the Central Body is the Earth. This is good since we are starting at Earth. If you were modeling only heliocentric orbits or those about other planets, you could change the central body for the scenario by making sure that “Planetary Options” is checked on the View menu
at
Trajectories in STK in a
Few Hundred Easy
Steps*
(*and to think that last year’s students thought some guidance would be helpful!)
Satellite ToolKit Interplanetary Tutorial
STK Version 9
INITIAL SETUP
1) Open STK. Choose the “Create a New Scenario” button.
2) Name your scenario and, if you would like, enter a description for it. The scenario time is not too critical – it will be updated automatically as we add segments to our mission.
3) STK will give you the opportunity to insert a satellite. (If it does not, or you would like to add another satellite later, you can click on the Insert menu at the top and choose New…) The Orbit
Wizard is an easy way to add satellites, but we will choose Define Properties instead. We choose
Define Properties directly because we want to use a maneuver-based tool called the Astrogator, which will undo any initial orbit set using the Orbit Wizard. Make sure Satellite is selected in the left pane of the Insert window, then choose Define Properties in the right-hand pane and click the
Insert…button.
4) The Properties window for the Satellite appears. You can access this window later by right-clicking or double-clicking on the satellite’s name in the Object Browser (the left side of the STK window).
When you open the Properties window, it will default to the Basic Orbit screen, which happens to be where we want to be. The Basic Orbit screen allows you to choose what kind of numerical propagator STK should use to move the satellite. Since we want to perform maneuvers, choose
Astrogator from the Propagator pull-down menu. This changes the Basic Orbit window to look like the one below.
5) Notice at the top that the Central Body is the Earth. This is good since we are starting at Earth. If you were modeling only heliocentric orbits or those about other planets, you could change the central body for the scenario by making sure that “Planetary Options” is checked on the View menu
at