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KepLemon

Citra Space Corporation's Rust-accelerated astrodynamics package built on the shared libraries provided by space-track

Installation

From PyPI (Preferred)

KepLemon can be installed directly for any operating system from a command line using pip install keplemon.

From a Local Build

For python users, the preferred installation method is through PyPI; however, the package can be installed locally by following the steps below.

  1. git clone https://github.com/citra-space/keplemon.git
  2. cargo install cargo-make
  3. cargo make build-<os>-<architecture> (e.g. for Linux x86 cargo make build-linux-x86)
  4. pip install target/wheels/*.whl

Environment Settings

Although not required, it is recommended to explicitly apply the settings in this section before using KepLemon to avoid unexpected behaviors and inaccurate calculations.

CPU Limits

By default, KepLemon will have access to all available cores when performing parallel functions. Limit this by calling set_thread_count before using other KepLemon functions.

from keplemon import set_thread_count, get_thread_count

# Update this to the desired core count
set_thread_count(4)

Time Constants and Earth-Orientation Parameters (EOP)

All astrodynamics packages have a strict dependence on measured changes to time and Earth's orientation. Since KepLemon uses the public Standardized Astrodynamics Algorithms Library (SAAL) at the core, the time and (EOP) data must conform to a specific format required by the underlying binaries. Rather than referencing data directly provided by the USNO, utility scripts are provided in KepLemon to request and export the relevant data.

Global Update

Use the command below from a terminal to update time constants and EOP data package-wide.

keplemon --update-eop global

Local Override

EOP data can also be written to explicit paths for inspection or package overrides using the commands below.

keplemon --update-eop custom_path.txt

Note

If you intend to use the data written to a local override, you must use the load_time_constants method at the beginning of your scripts. This is not needed if you maintain constants using the global method.

from keplemon.time import load_time_constants

# Update this to reflect the desired override path
load_time_constants("custom_path.txt")