OKAPI:Orbits is a young spin-off start up from the Institute of Space Systems of the Technische Universität Braunschweig. We provide access to state-of-the-art tools for:
- Object propagation, including uncertainty propagation,
- Pass prediction,
- Initial Orbit Determination (Gibb’s, Herrick-Gibb’s, GTDS),
- Statistical Orbit Determination (Weighted Least Squares, Extended Kalman Filter, Unscented Kalman Filter),
- Conjunction analysis,
- Manoeuvre suggestion (under development).
All our routines have been developed under scientific standards at the Institute of Space Systems, TU Braunschweig, and will be available using a simple-to-implement Representational State Transfer (REST) interface. A prototype is already accessible. Especially the last point brings some distinct advantages to our customers:
- It’s easy to integrate into software written in any programming language.
- You only subscribe for the services you need. If all you want is to predict satellite passes that is all you get, and all you pay for.
- There is no long training needed: All interfaces and processes are lean and well designed, so you can focus on your work.
- You don’t need expensive hardware to run your requests. Everything runs in the cloud, on safe and secure servers. If that is no option for you, of course the server can run anywhere you like.
- Last-but-not-least: Everything can be fully customized. If you need anything, we make sure you get it.
All this is possible thanks to the system running in the background: our data stream management system (DSMS), called Picard. Compared to conventional database management systems, DSMS continuously expect incoming data streams, just as they continuously provide outgoing data, while being optimized to control data flow and processing. This brings the great advantage that processes how to handle certain incoming data can be defined dynamically within the system. While in the current step of our development, the processes are already defined within the system, in future releases this will bring the possibility to define any process based on all components included in our software – which exceeds the list of tools named above.