Lox – Oxidized Astrodynamics – A safe, ergonomic astrodynamics library

by ElFitz • 1 year ago

121 42 1 year ago

BWStearns• 1 year ago

https://github.com/lox-space/lox/blob/main/crates/lox-space/...

The example code is helpful for seeing how it'd be used (might be cool to link to it from the README while the docs are still todo)

aero-glide22• 1 year ago

I work on simulations in a satellite company and have been looking for a way to move out of c++. Thank you very much, will explore this.

binarycoffee2• 1 year ago

Just curious, what kind of simulations do you work on (mission design?) and what libraries would you use in C++?

y33t• 1 year ago

With a name like 'lox' you'd think the banner image would be Pisces.

Cool project though, I will definitely be playing around with this.

goku124• 1 year ago

Pardon my ignorance, but how does lox relate to Pisces? I don't get the connection with cancer either, but the first thing that comes to mind on hearing Lox is liquid oxygen as it is used in rockets. So it's a connection between Rust language and astrodynamics. Is there something that makes Pisces more appropriate for this?

porcoda• 1 year ago

I assume they’re making a reference to Lox the food (brined Salmon), so a fish is appropriate.

Jorge1o1• 1 year ago

Sibling comment mentioned the connection between lox and Pisces, but the connection to Cancer is that the mascot for Rust is a crab.

MisterTea• 1 year ago

With a name like 'lox' you'd think the banner image would be Pisces.

It's written in Rust so it's all about the language instead of the mission.

helgee5• 1 year ago

Nah, not really. I sometimes wish that this was all about Rust but as of now the library is mostly being used through the Python wrapper.

goku124• 1 year ago

There is another crate in Rust named Nyx [1] that sounds very similar - an astrodynamics library with a Python wrapper. Anyone knows how they compare?

[1] https://github.com/nyx-space/nyx

binarycoffee2• 1 year ago

LOX is apparently MPL, so a bit easier to work with than Nyx' AGPL, but still at odd with the MIT/Apache2 combo that has become the norm in the Rust world.

oakwhiz• 1 year ago

There is an older version of Nyx which is Apache licensed

https://github.com/oakwhiz/nyx-space-apache

DarmokJalad1701• 1 year ago

There is also ANISE made by the same author: https://github.com/nyx-space/anise

helgee5• 1 year ago

Nyx is the OG Rust-based astrodynamics library and much more mature.

Lox started as a vehicle for myself to learn Rust and at that point I did not feel comfortable contributing to an established code base.

aero-glide22• 1 year ago

The only downside I see is agpl. Im not anti agpl, but truth is this would slow commercial adoption.

ge964• 1 year ago

It is kind of sad to be living where it's too early to have your own space craft. It is sci-fi at this point anyway to consider life like that, but that would be cool to write software for like car CAN bus. But I also get it's not a toy/matter of life and death. I guess a video game or simulator is the closest thing. Standardized APIs for thrusters or something that would be cool.

Tie into visual star navigation

treyd• 1 year ago

It will probably never be feasible to have "your own" spacecraft like we have cars. The time and distance scales are just way too huge. Something more resembling the scale of a superyacht might become possible in the far future.

ge964• 1 year ago

I understand too until there is FTL/warping space is too big

adamhartenz• 1 year ago

People can't even afford the cars they finance. Having your own plane is extremely rare. Even if you COULD have your own space craft, they would be more rare than owning a plane.

ge964• 1 year ago

Funny I don't even consider hacking on my own car like switching the infotainment system (11 yr old car)

genewitch6• 1 year ago

My dad bought a Belite ultralight aircraft. It arrived with the propeller too long so he damaged the motor the first time he booted it up. Rather than fixing the struts and wheels, they fucking cut the propeller shorter. The left wing was 3" longer than the right wing. It is an Italian motorcycle engine.

You might try to Google belite because that sounds awesome, right? My dad told Mr he was selling the plane when he got it back from belite, but decided to fly it one last time.

The engine failed at like 1000' after takeoff and piledrove him into some poor bastard's farm a quarter mile from the airport. The fucking plane could not even glide.

Random ass people driving is bad enough. I have dozens of gigs of dashcam videos of all manner of insane, mad, evil, stupid, degenerate driver in my more recent 100,000 miles traveled in the US.

genewitch6• 1 year ago

I meant to type but did not, in the google the name section; the company is defunct. I sent an email to another company that had a suspiciously similar logo and they accidentally forwarded me the legal representatives reply to the owner/ceo or whatever. I have a last name 2 people in the world have, so they knew who i was.

It happened so long ago and i got so frustrated with lawyers that i gave up trying to punish them for their BS.

helgee5• 1 year ago

Oh, hi! Project creator here.

I am very happy that you folks are showing interest but I am also terrified because this thing is definitely not ready for primetime, yet. The discerning astrodynamicist and/or rustacean will surely find things which are less than optimal or plain wrong.

I am also preparing for a trip so I won't be able to monitor this thread closely but I'll try to answer question wherever I can.

miramba3• 1 year ago

Can I build a solar system simulator with this? Looking for calculating the absolute positions of planets and moons with the sun at 0,0,0 given a datetime. Kepler calculations for planets, moons etc would be fine, as long as I can insert arbitrary objects and calculate their trajectory using gravity. Can this project do that?

helgee5• 1 year ago

We already have the possibility to get positions of celestial bodies with very high precision via JPL ephemerides but you would have to write and integrate your force model yourself.

bbor2• 1 year ago

Hey, this is really impressive stuff, talk about a dream job! Two quick questions if you find the time+interest:

1. What does "safe" imply? Type safety, maybe? Or just a general synonym for "few bugs/well tested"?

2. What kind of industry is this primarily envisioned for use in...? I have experience in the satellite industry (GRE and TT&C) but I was surprised to not see the usual buzzwords on this page, namely "TLEs". I get that it clearly does way more than terrestrial orbital work, but AFAIK that's, say, 99.9% of the current space industry.

In other words: is this library for ESA missions??? That would be rad as hell, if so.

also P.S. I love AI art compared to most, but I would def recommend carving out that cool crab and putting on a background of real stars. As you may or not be aware, many scientists have been a tad radicalized about AI, and AI art in particular -- would be a shame if that slowed adoption of a cool project!

genewitch6• 1 year ago

Ground Receiving Equipment, Telemetry, Tracking, & Control, and two line rlement sets. Apparently everything you need to predict orbits of a satellite are contained inside TLEs metadata and is considered a good way to share orbital information between disparate parties.

helgee5• 1 year ago

1. Safe as in type-safe, memory-safe, and null-safe in contrast to the state of the art which is mostly C++, Java, and tons of ancient Fortran.

2. At the moment, we are using it for speeding up Python code for telecommunications constellation design.

I want to commission a real human artist to design a logo and header image in the future. The AI art is a nice placeholder.

P.S.: I wish this was my day job. I actually had to quit my job at a major aerospace contractor to be able to work on this project.

watersb• 1 year ago

A textbook covering the physics of spaceflight, "Astronautics" by Ulrich Walter, was made available for free download by the publisher during the COVID lockdown.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-74373-8

My hope that this plus Kerbal Space Program would transform my brain proved that I tend to ignore my limitations.

Great book, though.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-74373-8

Lox – Oxidized Astrodynamics – A safe, ergonomic astrodynamics library

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