Getting started
Who this section is for. Mission designers and engineers who have not used this tool before. It assumes you can run commands in a terminal. It does not assume Rust, orbital mechanics, or RF experience.
Work through it in order the first time. After that, jump straight to the Reference for exact behavior, or Learn for the physics behind a number you do not recognize.
The path
Rust and Node.js toolchains, building the workspace, and verifying it runs.
Quick startFrom an empty machine to a 60-satellite constellation animating on a globe.
Your first analysisCoverage and a link budget from that same design, and why they disagree.
Core concepts
Read these when a term or a number does not make sense. Each is independent.
Planes, shells, phasing, and the four parameters that drive a design.
Time and coordinate framesUTC, epochs, ECI and ECEF, and the two frame-fidelity settings.
Propagation fidelityThe five models, what each includes, and which two have hard prerequisites.
Coverage and revisitGrids, elevation masks, fold, gaps, and why the mean is the least useful number.
Link budgetsWhy a link closes or does not, and what the tool computes on your behalf.
Units and conventionsUnits, sign conventions, angle ranges, and the CLI-versus-API naming split.
Accuracy and limitationsWhat these models are and are not suitable for. Read before a design review.
A note on naming
The product is Varaha Constellation Designer. The Rust workspace, its
crates, and the command-line binary all use the identifier orbitforge. When
you see orbitforge in a command, that is the same software.
main (pre-release)