Target Pointing

By default, a satellite flies in LVLH (nadir/ram) attitude. Target pointing lets you override that attitude during selected access windows so the satellite points at a specific ground target instead — useful for imaging, directional communication, or sensor operations during a pass.

Prerequisites

Before configuring target pointing:

1. The satellite must have a propagated orbit.
2. You must have at least one completed satellite-to-ground-station access for that satellite. Only completed, non-sensor accesses appear in the target pointing selector.

Opening the target pointing modal

1. In the Scenario tab, find the satellite in the satellite list.
2. Open the satellite’s more options menu (...).
3. Select Target Pointing.

The modal shows:

• Available Accesses — completed satellite-to-ground-station passes you can assign pointing to.
• Selected Accesses — the passes you’ve added to the pointing schedule, each with its own mode, priority, and duration settings.
• Settings — slew mode and default slew time.
• Target Times — a preview of the final resolved pointing intervals after overlaps and slew gaps are handled.

Configuring a pointing schedule

1. Select access passes

Click a pass in the Available Accesses list, then click > to add it to your schedule. The target’s coordinates (latitude, longitude, altitude, central body) come from the ground station associated with that access — you don’t enter them manually. To point at a new location, first create a ground station there.

2. Choose a pointing mode

Each selected pass has a mode dropdown:

Mode	Description
Spotlight	The satellite fixates on the target throughout the pass. Available for all targets.
Strip Scan	The satellite sweeps along a ground track direction. Available only for same-body targets (e.g. Earth sat → Earth GS, or Moon sat → Moon GS).

For cross-body targets (e.g. a Moon satellite pointing at an Earth ground station), only Spotlight is available.

3. Set priority and duration

Field	Range	Default	Purpose
Priority	100–1000 (steps of 100)	100	Higher number wins when intervals overlap. Ties broken by earliest start.
Max Duration (s)	1–86400, or empty	Empty (no cap)	Optionally crop the pointing window, centered on the middle of the access pass.

4. Configure slew settings

Open the Settings panel from the modal header:

| Setting | Range | Default | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | | Slew Mode | FixedTime | FixedTime | Only fixed-time slew is currently supported. | | Default Slew Time (s) | 1–600 | 30 | The gap inserted between consecutive pointing intervals. Lower-priority intervals are trimmed to make room. |

5. Preview and save

Click Update to refresh the Target Times table, which shows the final resolved intervals after overlap resolution and slew gaps are applied. Review the schedule, then Save.

How overlapping intervals are resolved

When multiple selected passes overlap in time:

1. The timeline is sliced at every interval boundary.
2. For each slice, the interval with the highest priority wins. Ties go to the earliest start time.
3. Slew time is inserted between consecutive intervals, trimming lower-priority intervals as needed.

What target pointing affects

Saving target pointing changes has downstream effects:

• Sensor-based accesses that involve this satellite are marked for recomputation with the new attitude.
• Power analysis is blocked until all referenced access passes have finished computing, because the attitude override changes the sun angle on the solar panels and body shadowing.
• Link budget geometry is marked pending until the referenced passes complete, since antenna boresight alignment depends on attitude.
• 3D visualizations show the body-axis and target-direction overlays during pointing intervals.

Limitations

• Only satellite-to-ground-station accesses can be used as pointing targets. Sensor-based accesses are excluded.
• Earth satellites can only target Earth ground stations. Moon satellites can target ground stations on both Earth and the Moon.
• Accesses must be completed before they appear in the selector.
• Only FixedTime slew mode is currently supported.
• Target coordinates come from the ground station, not from the modal. To point at a custom location, create a ground station there first.

Next steps

• Access — compute the passes that target pointing builds on
• Sensor — sensors are recomputed when target pointing changes
• Power — attitude overrides affect solar panel orientation
• Link Budget — antenna boresight alignment depends on attitude