Accesses & Coverage Using Spinning Sensors

Accesses can be performed using a spinning sensor, just as it can with any other sensor. However, due to their dynamic nature, spinning sensors can greatly increase the computation time involved. If the sensor scans at a rate of 30 rpm and the object being accessed is visible for four hours, STK must calculate 7200 unique access times.

This problem is exacerbated when spinning sensors are used as assets for coverage objects. When high spin rates or long durations are being modeled, it is much more efficient to change the sensor definition to model the field of view throughout the scan instead of trying to model the exact scan pattern. In most cases you will get similar results with much less computation.