Table of Contents

Getting Started: The Properties Panel

The Properties panel is the most important place for viewing the current specifications of any item in your simulation, including spacecraft, ground stations, components, and planets. This panel contains several context-sensitive tabs which separate information based on the selection. For example, when a spacecraft is selected there is a tab for its properties, as well as a tab for its primary body, constellation, etc. To change the data available, select a different component from the outliner.

Spacecraft & Objects

Most properties can be manipulated here, whereas some are read-only. The data available in each tab is broken down into sections. Ground stations and objects have similar properties, the sections available for spacecraft are detailed below.

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Category Description
Transform Contains position, Rotation, and velocity information. You can utilize several methods of defining n orbit here such as Keplerian Elements, or Cartesian Coordinates. This is also where you optionally select a TLE file.
Relationships This is where references to Constellations and this spacecraft’s Schematic are set up.
Physical All physical data is set here, such as mass, inertia tensor, etc.
Models This section is for simulation models affecting the spacecraft. Drag properties can be configured here.
Variables If your spacecraft has any custom-defined parameters that are exposed here, these can be added in Nominal Editor before being exported to Studio.
Messages All output messages from a spacecraft can be viewed here.

Ground Stations

Most properties can be manipulated here, whereas some are read-only. The data available in each tab is broken down into sections. The sections available for ground stations are detailed below.

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Category Description
Transform Contains position, Rotation, and velocity information. You can utilize several methods of defining n orbit here such as Keplerian Elements, or Cartesian Coordinates. This is also where you optionally select a TLE file.
Relationships This is where references to Constellations and this spacecraft’s Schematic are set up.
Communication Min Elevation and Range can be adjusted here, and TMTC databases can be assigned.
Link This section reads out the link status message for antennas on the ground station.
Visualization Allows visualisation of the FOV and range of the ground station.

Planets

The planet tab gives you access to two sections; planetary information and models.

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Category Description
Planet Information This section is a readout for information such as the radius and position of the planet.
Models You can configure the atmospheric density and height here, as well as magnetosphere properties.

Components

Components, such as solar panels and computers, are likely to have custom functions that can be called manually here. The sections available are broken down here.

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Category Description
Transform Much like the Transform section for spacecraft, the position here is in the spacecraft's local coordinate frame.
Component Models There are many models available to influence the behaviour of components, these generally depend on what component type we are looking at, such as reaction wheels having a degradation model. These can be enabled and configured here.
Variables All other parameters are exposed here, including custom properties imported from Nominal Editor.
Messages All output messages from a component can be viewed here.
Actions Actions are functions available on the component, these could be for deploying solar panels for example. These actions can also be used as events in the Events Tab of the Properties panel.
Viewport Some components have visualizable properties that can be shown in the viewport from here.

Constellation

Spacecraft can be optionally assigned to a constellation. If the current spacecraft is part of a constellation the relevant properties will be available here.

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Category Description
Constellation Properties General properties include the Primary Body, number of spacecraft, and pattern type.
Orbit Elements Used for the Iterative Keplerian pattern. This is the coordinate of the first spacecraft as Keplerian Elements.
Iterative Offset Used for the Iterative Keplerian pattern, this is the amount to offset the position of each consecutive spacecraft as Keplerian Elements.
TLE Selection When TLE File is selected as the pattern type this section becomes available, TLE Files can be imported here. Any number of TLEs can be specified in the file. The count value in Constellation Properties will still control the number of spacecraft pulled from the file starting at the first index.
Ground Stations Ground Stations can also be optionally assigned to a constellation.

Events

Events are configured here and visualized in the Timeline panel. Each section represents an event that must be added when a component is available to assign it to. For example, here we have a flag event on the guidance computer to start Sun-Pointing mode when the battery’s charge drops below 20%. Available event types are outlined below.

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Category Description
Timer Timer events simply execute at that time in the simulation, they are always visible on the timeline.
Flag Flag events are executed when a specified parameter reaches a certain value. These can be used to watch a battery's charge, or the Latitude on a GPS component, for example, and then optionally trigger an event when that happens. These appear on the timeline as they are triggered.
User Input User Input events allow you to assign one or more events to a key to execute at the same time.
MQTT MQTT events allow you to listen on an MQTT channel and wait for certain commands to execute events. Make sure you have connected MQTT in the connections dropdown first.