Track anything in orbit
SGP4/SDP4 propagation over 12,000 TLEs in 17ms. GiST-indexed conjunction screening. Pass prediction with AOS/TCA/LOS. Ground tracks, subsatellite points, and topocentric observation — all as SQL functions.
pg_orbit Documentation
Track satellites, compute planet positions, observe 19 planetary moons, predict Jupiter radio bursts, and plan interplanetary trajectories — all from standard SQL.
What can pg_orbit do?
Section titled “What can pg_orbit do?”Observe the solar system
Eight planets via VSOP87, the Sun, the Moon via ELP2000-82B, 19 planetary moons across Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Mars. Stars from J2000 catalog coordinates. Comets and asteroids from Keplerian elements.
Predict radio bursts
Jupiter-Io decametric emission probability from Carr source regions. Io orbital phase, Jupiter Central Meridian Longitude (System III), and burst probability — batch-computed over any time range with generate_series.
Plan trajectories
Lambert solver for interplanetary transfers between any two planets. Pork chop plots as SQL CROSS JOINs — 22,500 transfer solutions in 8.3 seconds. Departure C3, arrival C3, time of flight, transfer SMA.
Explore the docs
Section titled “Explore the docs” Quick Start Five SQL queries from 'Where is Jupiter?' to planning an Earth-Mars transfer
Guides Domain-specific walkthroughs for satellites, planets, moons, stars, comets, radio, and trajectories
Workflow Translation Side-by-side comparisons: how you do it today vs. how pg_orbit changes the game
Architecture Design principles, constant chain of custody, and the observation pipeline