Computing Spacecraft-Pointing Vectors for Limb Tracking

LMBTRK is a computer program that is used together with two software libraries known as ERHAND and HYBRRD to generate spacecraft-pointing vectors for limb-tracking maneuvers needed for experiments on propagation of radio signals through planetary atmospheres. LMBTRK determines, as a function of time, the direction in which one must point a ray (representing a radio beam) emitted by a spacecraft in order to make the ray pass through a planetary atmosphere on its way to a receiving station at a known location. LMBTRK was written for Sun computers running the Solaris operating system and has been running on a cluster of such computers used in the Radio Science System of the Cassini Spacecraft mission.