File: RELEASE_NOTE_V3.1.6

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                          SatTrack(TM) (V3.1) --- 
             A Real-time Satellite Tracking and Orbit Prediction 
          Program for UNIX/Linux Platforms with X11 Color Graphics

                      (SatTrack V3.1, Patchlevel 6)
                             January 13, 1997

                         Bester Tracking Systems
                              P.O. Box 8899
                           Emeryville, CA 94662
                              (510) 654-7824

                          http://www.bester.com




General description
===================

     SatTrack is a real-time satellite tracking and orbit propagation program 
with an X11 color world map tracking chart. It has been written in 'C' language 
on a Sun/UNIX workstation and provides two different live displays, 
for single or multiple satellites, and two different orbit prediction modes. 
Cursor controls used in the numerical live displays are compatible with the 
VT100 standard, which allows the program to be run basically from any terminal 
without the graphics display. If the program is run from an X Window terminal, 
the realtime graphics display can be started up. It will show the location 
of any number of specified satellites like the Space Shuttle or the Russian 
Space Station Mir, featuring the circle of visibility for any selected 
spacecraft and for the primary and a number of secondary ground stations. 
Also shown are the ground track for the next three orbits, the black-out zones 
for communication through the TDRSS network, Mission Elapsed Time (MET), the 
terminator, spacecraft lighting conditions and other details. The world maps 
are provided in two different styles with four different sizes each. 
Program SatTrack is particularly interesting for the upcoming Shuttle - Mir 
rendezvous missions. 

     The present version of SatTrack (V3.1) can track a single satellite and/or 
display multiple satellites for a single ground station. It can also control 
suitable ground station hardware, like antennas, optical telescopes and 
communications equipment with the proper Doppler corrections, and has an 
autotrack mode in which it can switch automatically between a number of 
specified satellites. For calibration purposes tracking of the Sun and the 
Moon are also provided. In the orbit prediction mode SatTrack pre-calculates 
passes of satellites over a specified ground station. The predictions can be 
run off either interactively or in a batch mode. 

     SatTrack uses the two-line Keplerian element (TLE) sets generated by the 
US Space Command or NASA to run either the SGP4 model for satellites in 
low-earth orbit or a simplified model for deep-space objects. The commercial 
version, SatTrack V4.0, has many more features, like a Graphical User 
Interface, like fast forward mode that will allow the user to view satellite 
motions at higher speed, the SDP4 model for deep-space objects, multiple 
ground stations and second graphics display with a fish-eye sky view. Other 
program features allow prediction of GPS coverage and precision (DOP) as 
a function of time.


Applications
============

     Applications of this software package range from visualizing orbits or
monitoring positions of individual artificial satellites or any groups of
satellites like the GPS system, to satellite system monitoring and space 
shuttle mission control objectives and mission planning, as well as full 
featured and automated ground station control. A wide number of applications 
becomes feasible with the realtime hooks built into modern Unix systems 
like Solaris 2.3.


System requirements
===================

     SatTrack V3.1 has been successfully compiled on the following platforms:
Sun-3 or Sun-4 (SPARCstation IPC, 5 or 10) with SunOS 4.1.x or Solaris 2.x, 
HP Apollo 9000 Series 700, IBM RS-6000, SGI Indigo 2 with IRIX 5.3, 
DEC Alpha with AXP/OSF, i386-Linux, i386-NetBSD, or i386-FreeBSD, with X11R5 
and X11R6 and various window managers. Only basic X11 and X11 Toolkit functions 
have been used to allow the program to be ported easily. SatTrack requires 
about 5 MB of disk space and less than 1.5 MB of memory at run time. With 
operating systems like Solaris 2.5 or VxWorks 5.2, true realtime performance 
can be achieved with SatTrack. 


How to obtain a copy
====================

     Current on-line information on SatTrack can be found on the World Wide Web 
page with the following URL:

                          http://www.bester.com

     The distribution file 'sattrack-3.1.6.tar.gz' can be obtained from this 
web page as well and has to be uncompressed and unbundled with the commands 
'gunzip' and 'tar -xvf', respectively. This will create the SatTrack directory 
tree. The README_MAKE file in the 'src' sub-directory gives brief instructions 
to compile the source code. More documentation can be found in the 'doc' 
sub-directory. 

     The much advanced commercial off-the-shelf version of SatTrack (V4.0) 
can be obtained from Bester Tracking Systems. Please check our web site at 
the above URL for detailed information and screen examples.


Copyright
=========

Copyright (c) 1992-1997 Bester Tracking Systems. All Rights Reserved.

SatTrack V3.1 is registered with the United States Library of Congress.

SatTrack is a trademark of Bester Tracking Systems.

Permission to incorporate this software or parts of it into commercial
products has to be obtained from Bester Tracking Systems, P.O. Box 8899,
Emeryville, CA 94662, USA. Note that distributing SatTrack 'bundled'
in with ANY product is considered to be a 'commercial purpose'.
    
Please give credit for non-commercial use of SatTrack V3.1 to 
Bester Tracking Systems.