[Ground-station] Gateway update + Gateway orbit modeling

[Michelle Thompson]

Things are moving on Gateway (lunar station)!

I’m trying to find an orbit model so we can make progress on a ground
station design. JAMSAT asked for help at AMSAT-NA Symposium and I said yes.
We’ve been talking ever since and are at the stage of writing formal
commitments to AREx, the project from ARISS that is working to put amateur
radio on the Gateway.

Yes, I know, everything could be canceled or delayed. But, the work we’re
doing is entirely re-usable and is exactly in line with our payload project.

I have not yet found a published orbital model for Gateway, but from the
meetings and presentations and documents, I know it’s a near rectilinear
halo orbit with a 7 day period. It’s highly elliptical, going from 3,000
(wikipedia) or 7,000 (Frank Bauer) out to 70,000 km. I am trying to get
clarification on the perilune (closest distance to moon).

I have GMAT from NASA successfully installed and over 1000 pages of
documentation to go along with it.

I don’t know anything about modeling orbits other than what I learned in AP
Physics in high school, but I’m willing to try to get something nailed down
and reviewed enough to help us with 1) tracking 2) link budgets and 3)
antenna repercussions.

Plus, surely an animation of what things look like would be super fun and
help everyone spread the word about this really neat amateur radio
opportunity.

So if you know anything about GMAT and can answer some newbie questions (as
soon as we have some) please speak up. If you're interested in installing
it and trying to help with this, then go here and get it stood up on your
machine:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gmat/

-Michelle W5NYV
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