NotImplementedError: Mode "Near-space, simplified equations" not implemented

[JTregloanReed]

Hi,

We have written a wrapper script to calculate the RA, DEC and time to perform observations of all visible LEOsats using your pyorbital script. Everything has been working fine, until today. I am unsure if it is an error in pyorbital, or that our wrapper script is not handling the error correctly. But it works for some of the satellites given in the TLE, then suddenly stops with:

File "/home/jeremy/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyorbital/orbital.py", line 807, in propagate raise NotImplementedError('Mode "Near-space, simplified equations"' NotImplementedError: Mode "Near-space, simplified equations" not implemented

Could someone help explain what this error means please?

Thank you for your help and thank you for a great script.

[mraspaud]

@JTregloanReed Hi!

I looks like the simplified equations are supposed to be used when the perigee drops down below 220 km. These simplified equations aren't implemented yet unfortunately, so I suppose one of the satellites you are monitoring went down below that?

Any help with implementing these equations is very welcome :)

[JTregloanReed]

@mraspaud Hi,

Thank you for the clarification. Indeed some of the newly launched Starlink LEOsats are still in orbital rise and are below 220 km, which explains the issue. As a quick work-around, I can add a quick test in our wrapper to prevent LEOsats below 220 km being passed to pyorbtial. But for a more robust solution, adding the equations will be desirable.

I can't guarantee when, but I would be happy to help out with adding the equations :).

Cheers

[mraspaud]

Any help will be highly appreciated! I was wondering if the non-simplied equation could also be used as a temporary workaround?