Predictions Format Study Group Activities

Below is of list of meetings, activities, decisions and actions:

Meetings:

Plans:

Timetable:

  • Report on progress on any items above, at all DF & P Working Group and ILRS meetings until project is complete.
  • Prepare a formal proposal to the ILRS governing board at the Fall meeting in 2002 or whenever the format issues have been resolved.
  • The acceptance of the final format version should take place by 2004.

Notes:

  • This study group requires participation by members of the artificial satellite, lunar, and laser transponder communities.
  • The implementation of this group's proposal must be in place by launch of the first transponder. This implies that formal acceptance of the proposal by ILRS will be needed a couple of years before this to give adequate time for software and procedures to be developed and put into place.
  • The need for standardized, high precision low earth satellite predictions may argue for an earlier completion date.
  • Any proposed new format will require a fair amount of software development to support it. This task is beyond the scope of this group. Software modifications to prove feasibility of the new format(s) should be done where possible.
  • ILRS fullrate, engineering data, and normalpoint formats will eventually need to be changed to accommodate much longer ranges and new parameters. This is beyond the scope of this study group. The Data Formats and Procedures Working Group should consider forming a data formats study group as soon as this study group has made sufficient progress to avoid overlapping effort.
  • Asynchronous transponder ranging will require centralized data reduction formatting combining data recorded at earth-bound ranging sites as well as on the spacecraft. Organizing this effort is beyond the scope of this study group.