ODTK 7.6 Release Notes
ODTK 7.6 is a minor release with eight new features and some additional improvements. You are encouraged to read thoroughly all release notes to understand how you may benefit or be impacted if upgrading from a previous version.
Cislunar feature items
GNSS constellations at the Moon
ODTK GNSS constellation capabilities now enable you to define custom GNSS systems that can be in orbit about any central body (e.g., the Moon), not just the Earth.
Earth-based GNSS for cislunar receivers
You can now simulate and process GPS and other Earth-based GNSS system measurements to include GNSS receivers located on or in orbit about the Moon.
Relay range/Doppler for lunar orbiters
Relayed measurement types now work in tracking strands that involve objects about two or more central bodies, including the Moon. The affected measurement types include 1W Bistatic Range, 1W Bistatic Doppler, BRTS Range, BRTS Doppler, 3L Doppler, 4L Range, and 5L Doppler.
Other feature items
Right ascension rate and declination rate measurement types
ODTK now supports the following additional RA/Dec measurement types:
- Ground-based right ascension rate and declination rate
- Space-based right ascension rate and declination rate
One-way range measurement types
ODTK now supports these one-way range measurement types:
- Ground-based one-way range (transmitted from a satellite)
- Space-based one-way range (transmitted from one satellite to another)
These measurements include the phase error of the clock on the transmitting satellite, in addition to the position and velocity.
DSN station masks
ODTK now applies Az-El masks to DSN tracking stations through the DSNetwork.tso file, which is based on data from JPL's 301N report.
Static Product Builder description fields
The Static Product Builder now provides description fields for all report and graph types. You can see the description of a selected report or graph in a text box on the Static Product Builder window in ODTK.
Edge browser
ODTK now has a modern Edge browser with Chromium controls. With this you can browse HTML pages, and it enables you to use advanced HTML and JavaScript with up-to-date libraries.
Corrected issues and additional enhancements in ODTK 7.6
In addition to the new features, this release also provided additional enhancements and technical corrections from the last release.
| Additional Enhancements and Resolved Issues in ODTK 7.6 | |
|---|---|
| Tracking No. | Description |
| 115872 | The File menu now shows the full path of previously opened scenarios at the bottom left of the screen. |
| 116728 | There is a new ODTK workbook preference that you can select so that ODTK saves and recreates graphs when you close and then open a scenario. ODTK will recreate the graphs as they were when you closed the scenario, even if you subsequently generated new data such as satellite data, filter data, etc. |
| 117210 | This updates the Accelerometer Bias Drift estimation. Errors had caused two problems: (1) preventing the display of results for Accelerometer Bias Drift graph styles, and (2) accounting for internal unit differences between states in the joint state-error transition function. |
| 117681 | This corrects a deficiency in satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-surface vehicle visibility computations in the case where the vehicles are referenced to different central bodies. The computation previously did not account for the obstruction by both central bodies. This error would have mainly affected the intervals over which ODTK generated simulated data under these conditions. |
| 117760 | The Static Product Builder has a new function called FindProduct that you can use through the Scripting Tool to search for data products by name. |
| 118094 | The GNSS Constellation object now supports the following additional ephemeris source extensions: .alm for YUMA and .al3 for SEM. |
| 118288 | ODTK now has the capability to generate filter/smoother consistency plots for permanent finite maneuver states. |
| 118355 | ODTK can now (again) estimate the location of GNSS receiver antenna phase centers. Changes in a previous version disabled this capability, resulting in ODTK not making corrections to antenna locations. |
| 118364 | This corrects an issue where NPlate Drag, using solar panel plates, was producing incorrect results. |
| 118605 | This fixes an issue where the SimConstraints.GainPatternConstraint on GNSS Constellation objects would return an errant warning about no valid satellites. |
| 118612 | The Python API now enables you to send NumPy equivalents for floats and integers. |
| 118665 | The following measurement models now ensure that the effects of antenna offsets are properly accounted for in cases where the measurement strand contains objects referenced to more than one central body: Range, Doppler, 1W Doppler, 1W Bistatic Doppler, SB Range, and SB Doppler. |
| 118685 | The State File Dumper tool now supports the output of the covariance types Keplerian and Equinoctial. |
| 118939 | The Ephemeris Extraction tool now has the capability to extract relative ephemeris between satellites that ODTK estimated in different reference frames. An example would be relative ephemeris between a lander and an orbiter. |
| 119057 | ODTK now reports on the optical navigation image processing bias state and differenced optical navigation image processing bias. |
| 119070 | The Instant Maneuver Summary report now correctly reports the root variances of the maneuver component estimates. Since the transition to Python-based reposting, it had been reporting the variances instead. |
| 119096 | For DSN 1W and 3W Doppler Total Count Phase ("DSN 1W TCP" and "DSN 3W TCP"), ODTK used to report the Measurement Type units as blank strings (""). ODTK now correctly reports the unit and dimension names as "Unitless". For backward compatibility, the Tracking Data Provider scripting interface will still accept empty string ("") for the unit name for these measurement types, but it is much better to pass "Unitless" instead. |
| 119165 | ODTK will install EdgeWebView2 - Runtime if your system does not have it. This is required for Web Viewer Toolbar to function correctly. |
| 119197 | This corrects an error in the writing of covariance information from the filter and smoother processes into ephemeris files in the CCSDS OEM format. The prior error caused the covariance section of the file to end prematurely. |
Unresolved issues affecting the ODTK 7.6 release
You should be aware of the following limitations and unresolved issues affecting ODTK as of the ODTK 7.6 release.
| Known Issues | |
|---|---|
| Tracking No. | Description |
| 07071 | Tracker satellites cannot share tracking IDs with GPS constellation PRN numbers. If a scenario contains both an optical tracker satellite and a GPS constellation and the tracker satellite has a tracking ID between 1-36, the tracking ID will become ambiguous. |
| 23349 | LaunchPad doesn't format dates in local format. It always uses MM/DD/YYYY, even if your machine is configured to show dates as DD/MM/YYYY. |
| 30517 | The Plugins tab does not refresh the SupportsSave column. When you add a new plugin tracking data reader and click Apply, the column labeled SupportsSave is not refreshed. By default, the value in this column is false, but after you add a new tracking data reader that supports save, then the value in this column should be true. You must dismiss the panel and pull it back up to get the correct value. |
| 31034 | After a long predict, the covariance is quite large. A very large measurement update can drive the filter covariance negative. |
| 31802 | A GPS constellation object does not populate the PRNList until properties are applied. We suggest that when you first assign a source file to a GPS constellation, you press Apply before double-clicking on the PRNList to view its contents. |
| 32139 | State File To SP3 utility limits output to GPSSatellites named PRN01, PRN02, etc. |
| 42672 | Dynamic Earth Data does not use file find paths. Do not attempt to change the location from the default location. |
| 100422 | When using native support for 4K displays, the Object Properties tree [+] and [-] boxes do not scale properly and will appear very small. |
| 110488 | In deep space mode, the simulator runs in two stages. In the first stage, it generates ephemeris over the analysis period plus an interval of time before the analysis period to account for light time delay (LTD). The simulator ignores any maneuvers in this LTD interval, so any measurements generated under the case where the signal would have been at the satellite before the end of the maneuver will be incorrectly modeled. |
| 113157 | Adding non-EOP txt files, particularly SOLFSMY.txt, to the EOP properties causes ODTK to crash rather than just producing an error. |
| 114299 | If any type of Doppler measurement that uses an integration interval contains a maneuver boundary within the integration interval, the measurement model will generate an erroneous result. This can result in Filter divergence in certain conditions. |
| 116805 | When a text export fails, ODTK displays old content from a previous successful run. This could be misleading if you are not aware of the failure. |
| 117007 | ODTK does not expose the alias system for emitters, even though tracking data providers send in the emitter tracking IDs. |
| 117471 | If you have a satellite going around the Earth and you add an IOD object, ODTK will associate that IOD object with the Earth. If you change the central body for the satellite, the IOD object will not realize it. If you then run the IOD, the solution will be Earth centered when you really want the center to be a different central body. |