3-D ANALYSIS SOFTWARE OF NEAR EARTH SPACE

A FULLY OPERATIONAL IBM PC-AT BASED SPACE SYSTEM CONCEPT GENERATION AND ANALYSIS WORKSTATION WILL BE DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED. THIS WORKSTATION WILL ALLOW THE USER TO VIEW AN ANIMATION OF THE POSITIONS OF THE SUN, MOON, PLANETS, EARTH SATELLITES AND EARTH COASTLINE BOUNDARIES FROM SELECTED ORBITS AND FIELDS OF VIEW. STATE-OF-THE-ART GRAPHICS ANIMATION TECHNOLOGY WILL BE ENGINEERED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS APPLICATION. EXISTING SATELLITE EPHEMERIS ALGORITHMS WILL BE HIGHLY ACCELERATED. THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CAPABLE OF ANIMATING ALL OBJECTS VISIBLE IN THE USER-DEFINED VIEWPORT AT RATES OF UP TO 10 TIMES REAL-TIME WHILE MAINTAINING MINIMAL INTER-FRAME AND SCREEN REFRESH TIMES. THE OBSERVER'S VANTAGE POINT MAY BE SPECIFIED AS AN EARTH-CENTERED ORBIT, A SUN-CENTERED ORBIT, OR STAR-FIXED.