Package org.orekit.attitudes

This package provides classes to represent simple attitudes.

Some force models such as the atmospheric drag or the maneuvers need to know the spacecraft orientation in inertial frame. OREKIT uses a simple container for Attitude which includes both the geometric part (i.e. rotation) and the kinematic part (i.e. the instant spin axis). The components hold by this container allow to convert vectors from inertial frame to spacecraft frame along with their derivatives. This container is similar in spirit to the various extensions of the abstract Orbit class: it represents a state at a specific instant.

Several classical attitude laws are already provided in this package. One special implementation is the AttitudesSequence class which handle a set of laws, only one of which being active at any time. The active law changes as switch events are triggered.

Author:
Fabien Maussion, Luc Maisonobe, VĂ©ronique Pommier-Maurussane