Celestia Forums

The orbits of many of the earth satellites included in Celestia are out of date. Especially low-flying satellites like the ISS are frequently in need of update, as atmospheric drag, dockings, and course corrections perturb the orbits.

To automate this task, I've created a python script that downloads the latest TLE data from CelesTrak and converts it to SSC data. This data can be piped or copied into a file.
The script makes it easy to automate the task of updating the orbits, for example daily or each time Celestia is started.

The orbit_translate script is based on the Excel spreadsheet by Grant Hutchison.

Here is the script:
https://github.com/erikjber/orbit_translate

CAUTION:
This has not been thoroughly tested. I welcome bug reports and feature requests. If you find anything that is wrong or annoying, please let me know so that I can fix it.

You can send a massage to the devs with regards to your contributions. I agree with you that the orbits need to be updated and improved. But I would suggest including the orbits of planets as well. I asked about that some time ago when I tried to see if a double transit of the Sun by Mercury and Venus which will happen in a really long time would be stimulated there. It didn't happen, so it had something to do with the orbits.

The devs are pirogronian and onetwothree.

You can send a massage to the devs with regards to your contributions

I don't want to bother the devs with a minor thing like this.

But I would suggest including the orbits of planets as well.

That's an interesting suggestion. I would need a reliable source of planetary ephemeris. I'm not sure if my understanding of orbital mechanics is up to snuff, so there would be an element of learning involved.

Great!

erikjber, if you don't mind, we include it to our tools collection.

onetwothree wrote:if you don't mind, we include it to our tools collection.

I don't mind. In fact, I'm thrilled!