Access

Compute satellite-to-ground-station visibility windows: AOS/LOS times, pass duration, and maximum elevation per pass.

Access analysis answers: when can my satellite see my ground station, and how well?

Running an access computation

Access computations take a propagated satellite and one or more ground stations, and return every visibility window in the scenario timeline.

For each pass you get:

  • Start and end time (AOS/LOS — acquisition and loss of signal).
  • Duration — typically a few minutes per pass in LEO.
  • Maximum elevation — higher max elevation generally means better link quality and longer passes.

Target pointing

During access windows, you can override the satellite’s default nadir/ram attitude to point at a target on the ground. Two modes are available:

  • Spotlight — the satellite fixates on a single ground target throughout the pass.
  • StripScan — the satellite sweeps along a ground track direction.

Target pointing affects power generation (the sun angle on the body changes) and link budget (antenna boresight alignment).

Using the results

  • Communication planning — schedule uplinks/downlinks per pass.
  • Data budgets — combine pass durations with your downlink data rate to estimate daily downlink capacity.
  • Station selection — compare candidate sites by total daily contact time before committing to a ground network provider.
  • Power payloads — payloads can be configured to activate only during access windows. See Power.

Constellations

Access analysis works for constellations too: compute passes for every satellite against your station network to find aggregate contact time and gaps.

Next steps