1112.1304 (N. Delsate et al.)
N. Delsate, A. Compère
NIMASTEP is a home-made numerical software which allows to integrate the
osculating motion (using cartesian coordinates) of an object considered as a
point mass orbiting a homogeneous central body which rotates (with a constant
rate) around its axis of smallest inertia. The objects under study could be
particles, artificial or natural satellites, space debris,... The central body
is either any terrestrial planet of the Solar System or any dwarf-planet or
even an asteroid. In addition, a large number of perturbations can be taken
into account as the combined third-body attraction of the Sun, the Moon or the
planets, the direct solar radiation pressure (with the central body shadow),
the non-homogeneous gravitational field due to the non-sphericity of the
central body and even some thrust forces. The simulations are performed using
different integration algorithms. Two additional tools are integrated in the
software package; the indicator of chaos MEGNO and the frequency analysis NAFF.
NIMASTEP is designed in a flexible modular style and allows to (de)select a
large number of options without compromising performance. By this
extensibility, the software could be used by a large fraction of the
astronomical or geodesian community. The code has been validated through
several tests such as comparisons with numerical integrations made with other
softwares or with semi-analytical and analytical studies. The various
possibilities of NIMASTEP are described and explained and some tests of
astrophysical interest are presented. Presently, the code is proprietary but it
will become released for use by the community in a near future. The useful
informations to contact its authors and (in the future) to obtain the software
are available on the web site
http://www.fundp.ac.be/en/research/projects/page_view/10278201/
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.1304
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