ATESAT: A symbolic processor for artificial satellite theory Original Research Article

Analytical theories for the artificial satellite motion involve operations with the so called Poisson series. Even if only a second order theory is required, the amount of terms involved is so huge, that it is almost an impossible task to carry out by hand the theory. Thus, algebraic manipulators are essential in this field, and even more, since general purpose manipulators are not completely satisfactory, specific manipulators are necessary. Aware of this fact, we build ATESAT (Automatization of Theories and Ephemeris in the artificial Satellite problem), that provides the automatic generation of programs for computing the ephemeris of the satellite from the analytical theory chosen. ATESAT is built with PSPC, an algebraic manipulator from our own, especially designed for manipulating Poisson series.