ProjectEdit on GitHubSource: ROADMAP.md

Kshana roadmap

This is the phased, honest roadmap for Kshana. It complements two other sources of truth: CHANGELOG.md records released history, and docs/CAPABILITY.md tracks the maturity of each capability (full / partial / none), while docs/VERIFICATION-MATRIX.md grades the evidence behind each one (VALIDATED / MODELLED / PARTNER). When those disagree with this file, the per-capability table in docs/CAPABILITY.md wins.

Horizons are indicative, not commitments, and no item below carries a date. Kshana is pre-1.0; the public scenario/result schema may still change (breaking changes are called out in the CHANGELOG.md).

Priorities#

Work is ordered by where the evidence is strongest and where a user needs it, not by the size of the code. The phases further down (P1–P3) are the engineering history and backlog; this list says what comes first.

  1. Timing and holdover evidence for critical infrastructure — first. This is the best-validated domain: the stability estimators (Allan deviation (ADEV), modified Allan deviation (MDEV), time deviation (TDEV), maximum time interval error (MTIE)) and the holdover coast-variance inversion are VALIDATED against external oracles. Next:
    • answer telecom users in their own units — MTIE and TDEV checked against the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) masks, starting with the telecom-timing kind (docs/TELECOM-TIMING.md);
    • a longer reference holdover scenario that includes ageing and flicker noise, next to the existing pinned two-hour example (which stays unchanged);
    • ingestion of measured clock data (phase or time-interval-error logs) so a study can run on the user's own clock rather than a representative one;
    • a figure-by-figure VALIDATED / MODELLED label in the run output, not only in the matrix;
    • a data partner (a timing laboratory, test house or clock vendor) to promote the per-clock-class floors from MODELLED to VALIDATED.
  2. The neutral quantum-vs-classical trade method — second. Quantum and classical clocks and inertial sensors stay comparable on the same scenario, with results labelled MODELLED. The route to stronger evidence is a partner's measured Allan-deviation data through the quantum-trade kind, not more modelled physics.
  3. Lunar / cislunar and deep-space navigation — maintained. These capabilities stay supported, tested and tiered in the matrix. New work there is driven by a concrete user or a published result, and they are not the lead of the public description.
  4. First-minute experience on every surface — every registry quickstart and the browser playground should give a first result without fetching extra files.

Shipped (on main)#

A validated, fully reproducible engine spanning the PNT (positioning, navigation and timing) stack:

  • Orbit & geometry — SGP4/SDP4 (SGP4: Simplified General Perturbations 4; SDP4: Simplified Deep-space Perturbations 4) propagation validated to 4.12 mm against all 666 AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) 2006-6753 vectors; real-TLE (committed date-stamped Celestrak gps-ops snapshot) and synthetic Walker constellations whose mean elements realise the i:T/P/F formula to under 1 km over 24 h; multi-constellation visibility, dilution of precision, and GNSS (global navigation satellite system) availability; a gradient-free constellation-design optimiser, streets-of-coverage minimum-satellite sizing, a multi-constellation comparison tool, and a Walker design sweep that tabulates coverage / PDOP (position dilution of precision) / revisit-time over a planes×satellites grid and reports the Pareto-optimal designs as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).
  • Maneuvers & trajectory design — impulsive ΔV nodes with 6×6 covariance propagation (ECI (Earth-centred inertial) / LVLH (local vertical, local horizontal) execution-error frames), finite-burn integration checked against the closed-form Tsiolkovsky rocket equation to < 0.01 %, an Izzo-2015 single-revolution Lambert solver and an exact universal-variable Kepler propagator, and a porkchop (launch × arrival) C3 / arrival-V∞ sweep emitted as a JSON contour grid — the performance-simulation layer above GMAT/Orekit (GMAT: General Mission Analysis Tool), with Lambert outputs round-tripped against two-body truth and the porkchop minimum checked against the analytic Hohmann floor.
  • Numerical propagator — a Cowell propagator (src/propagator.rs) integrating a configurable zonal-gravity force model with a choice of adaptive driver — RK4 (fourth-order Runge–Kutta) step doubling or the Dormand–Prince RK5(4) embedded pair (integrator::integrate_dopri / propagate_dopri, a cheaper 7-eval embedded error estimate) — pinned against analytic truth: the unperturbed orbit matches the exact universal-variable Kepler solution to sub-metre over 24 h, energy/angular-momentum conserve to ~1e-9, and the J2 nodal regression reproduces the closed-form secular rate; plus a convergence-guarded Kepler-equation solver. The force model spans the full Earth zonal field through degree 6 (forces::zonal_accel, the published EGM-96 (EGM: Earth Gravitational Model) J2..J6): the acceleration is the exact analytic gradient of the zonal disturbing potential, validated against its own numerically-differentiated potential, against the 666-vector-validated J2 closed form, and via the odd/even zonals' characteristic north–south symmetry. Epoch-driven third-body (Sun and Moon) gravity is wired into the time-varying integrator (ForceModel::third_body / accel_at): each RHS (right-hand side) evaluation samples the built-in low-precision analytical Sun and Moon ephemerides (src/ephem.rs, Montenbruck & Gill) at the advanced epoch epoch_jd_tt + t/86400, so the perturbers move along their orbits during the integration. Validated as the exact gradient of its disturbing potential; the Sun ephemeris against hand-derived J2000 anchors (perihelion distance, solstice declination, ~1°/day motion) and the Moon against its perigee/apogee envelope, ~384 400 km mean distance, ≤ 5.3° inclination bound, and sidereal-month return; and the integration wiring proven bit-exact (RHS term = third_body_accel at the sampled position), with a quarter-year epoch shift producing a different trajectory. Solar-radiation pressure (forces::srp_accel / ForceModel::solar_radiation) is wired into the same epoch-driven RHS: the cannonball model ν·P☉·cᵣ·(A/m)·(AU/d)²·d̂ with a conical umbra+penumbra shadow (forces::conical_shadow, a smooth ν ∈ [0,1] from the Sun/Earth apparent-disk overlap), validated against the textbook 1-AU (AU: astronomical unit) pressure (≈ 4.54·10⁻⁶ N/m²), the ~1.36·10⁻⁷ m/s² LEO (low Earth orbit) magnitude, the inverse-square fall-off, an exactly-zero deep-umbra eclipse, a smooth monotonic penumbra that extends beyond the umbral cylinder, and a ~linear A/m scaling of the propagated displacement. Atmospheric drag (forces::drag_accel / ForceModel::drag) is wired in as the first velocity-dependent force: quadratic drag against the co-rotating atmosphere of the Vallado piecewise-exponential forces::atmospheric_density, validated by the 1.225 kg/m³ sea-level anchor, a monotonic LEO decay with a physical ~58 km scale height, the ~2·10⁻⁶ m/s² drag magnitude, and the dissipation signature (a 300 km orbit loses energy monotonically and its semi-major axis decays ~km/day where the vacuum orbit conserves energy). The post-Newtonian (Schwarzschild) relativistic correction (forces::relativistic_accel / ForceModel::relativity) is the second velocity-dependent term — the IERS (International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service) β = γ = 1 form a = (μ/c²r³)·{[4μ/r − v²]·r + 4(r·v)·v}, the leading driver of the relativistic perigee advance — validated by its closed-form circular value 3μ²/(c²r³)·r̂, its textbook ≈1.9·10⁻⁹ LEO ratio to two-body, and the conservative signature (it perturbs the orbit but, unlike drag, holds the semi-major axis to under a metre/day). High-degree tesseral gravity, the NRLMSISE-00 (NRLMSISE: Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter Radar Extended atmosphere model) thermospheric density, solar limb darkening / the oblate-Earth shadow, the Lense–Thirring frame-dragging term, and external GMAT/Orekit cross-validation remain follow-ons.
  • Time systems — IERS leap-second UTC/TAI/TT/UT1 (UTC: Coordinated Universal Time; TAI: International Atomic Time; TT: Terrestrial Time; UT1: Universal Time 1, Earth-rotation time), Julian-date API (application programming interface), IAU-2000 (IAU: International Astronomical Union) Earth Rotation Angle; GMST-based (GMST: Greenwich mean sidereal time) TEME↔ECEF (TEME: true equator, mean equinox; ECEF: Earth-centred, Earth-fixed) and WGS-84 (WGS: World Geodetic System) geodetic frames.
  • Inertial — three-axis strapdown INS (quaternion attitude, NED (north-east-down) mechanization, coning/sculling, deterministic IMU (inertial measurement unit) error model), plus a sequential-importance-resampling particle filter for map-aided (terrain-/gravity-referenced) GPS-denied (GPS: Global Positioning System) navigation.
  • Gravity-map / alt-PNT — a cold-atom gravimeter measurement model (white-noise floor σ = ASD/√τ derived from the CAI (cold-atom interferometer) accelerometer physics), a low-degree fully-normalised spherical-harmonic gravity-anomaly field (validated against the closed-form Legendre functions and a hand-derived single-term anomaly) plus synthetic mascons, and a gravity-map-matching particle filter that recovers a GPS-denied track from the anomaly sequence it flies through. A 60-minute GPS-denied benchmark flies a ~700 km / one-hour outage where the inertial solution drifts to ~70 km, and a hierarchical coarse-to-fine matcher with the gravimeter's deterministic seeded noise recovers it to ~145 m (< 500 m) — the ESA (European Space Agency) NAVISP (Navigation Innovation and Support Programme) Quantum Wayfarer target. Magnetic maps (IGRF-14 (IGRF: International Geomagnetic Reference Field) main field) and terrain-referenced navigation are wired (terrain-nav, combined-altpnt), and sequential terrain-referenced navigation — SITAN (Sandia Inertial Terrain-Aided Navigation) as a running particle filter that tracks a time-varying INS drift epoch by epoch (terrain-slam) — is now built. The full EGM2008 (Earth Gravitational Model 2008) coefficient set, a map-error Monte-Carlo, a real high-frequency crustal magnetic map, and joint map estimation (full SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping)) remain follow-ons.
  • Fusion — loosely-coupled 15-state GNSS/INS error-state EKF (extended Kalman filter) with closed-loop feedback, a tightly-coupled pseudorange update that corrects with fewer than four satellites, a coupled clock+position filter, a general unscented (sigma-point) Kalman estimator for strongly nonlinear measurement models, a tightly-coupled GNSS/INS UKF navigator (pseudorange + Doppler, force-model orbital coast validated to 0.77 m RMS (root mean square) over a 30-minute curving LEO pass including a 120-second GNSS outage), and a full 17-state tightly-coupled GNSS/INS UKF (position, velocity, attitude error, accelerometer and gyro biases, clock bias and drift) whose quantum-CAI dead-reckoning coasts a 120-second outage on the cold-atom accelerometer's derived velocity-random-walk.
  • Integrity — snapshot and solution-separation (ARAIM-style (ARAIM: advanced receiver autonomous integrity monitoring)) RAIM (receiver autonomous integrity monitoring) with HPL/VPL (HPL: horizontal protection level; VPL: vertical protection level), FDE (fault detection and exclusion), and Stanford diagrams; an explicit integrity-risk-budget (MHSS) protection level, including the dual-/multi-constellation constellation-wide fault mode (EU (European Union) ARAIM / DO-316).
  • Clock & timing — two-state holdover Kalman, Allan-family stability with confidence intervals, optical/RF (RF: radio-frequency) two-way time transfer, and the geometric time-transfer corrections (Sagnac effect, GNSS common-view single difference). Operational transfer methods build on these: TWSTFT (two-way satellite time and frequency transfer) with the BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) Sagnac closed form 2·A·ω_E/c² and a one-day T_A−T_B/TDEV campaign, GNSS common-view between two synthetic ground stations, PPP (precise point positioning) ionosphere-free time transfer with a receiver-clock solve, a free-space optical link with Rytov/Fried turbulence scintillation, a full IEEE-1139 (IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) five-coefficient power-law noise fit, and an inverse-variance clock-ensemble (paper) timescale that beats the best contributing clock.
  • GNSS measurement domain — Klobuchar (broadcast) and IONEX/TEC-grid (measured) ionosphere, with an IONEX file parser, time interpolation between maps, and the slant obliquity mapping; Saastamoinen + Niell troposphere, pseudorange/Doppler, snapshot RAIM.
  • Resilience — link-budget jamming (J/S → effective C/N₀ → loss of lock); a stochastic time-spoof detector (Neyman–Pearson / χ²₁ energy test, Monte-Carlo P_fa/P_md, Security FoM = 1 − P_md); and a multi-layer spoof detector fusing a RAIM-consistency parity test (with the common-mode blind spot modelled honestly), an RF-layer AGC-power (AGC: automatic gain control) monitor, and a signal-quality (SQM (signal-quality monitoring) Early-minus-Late) monitor.
  • Interoperability — RINEX-3 (RINEX 4 navigation refused by name; 4.00 observation expected but untested), SP3-c/d (SP3: Standard Product 3, the precise-orbit format), CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) OEM (Orbit Ephemeris Message) 2.0 (export and import via the oem-interop round-trip bridge) and OMM (mean-elements) export, plus CCSDS-TDM (503) and the space-packet (CCSDS 133.0-B) framer.
  • Mission-analysis & environment (first-order, MODELLED) — runnable launch-window (azimuth / plane-change / opportunities), reentry (Allen-Eggers corridor), eo-coverage (swath / GSD (ground sample distance) / access / revisit), attitude-budget (gravity-gradient torque
    • RSS (root-sum-square) pointing budget), passes (ground-station rise/set prediction), link-budget (CCSDS-401/DSN-810-005 (DSN: Deep Space Network) link equation), and space-weather (Kp/ap/F10.7a + Jacchia-71 exospheric temperature + activity-driven density). Plus the two-tender demonstrators impairment-eval (Machine-learning RF-impairment ROC/AUC (ROC: receiver operating characteristic; AUC: area under the curve) harness) and quantum-trade. All are first-order/MODELLED — the analysis layer above GMAT/STK (STK: Systems Tool Kit), not a replacement, and never validated flight tools. See docs/CAPABILITY.md for per-kind scope.
  • Surfaces — Rust library, CLI (command-line interface), Python (PyO3) and WebAssembly (wasm-bindgen) bindings, and an in-browser playground.

P1 — surface and harden (near-term)#

  • ITRF-precise (ITRF: International Terrestrial Reference Frame) frame reduction toward the GCRS/J2000 (GCRS: Geocentric Celestial Reference System) system on top of the shipped GMST-based TEME↔ECEF. (In progress — IAU 2006 precession (src/precession.rs), both the IAU 2000B and the full IAU 2000A (678 luni-solar + 687 planetary terms) nutation series and the full TEME→TOD→MOD→GCRS (TOD: true of date; MOD: mean of date) chain (src/nutation.rs, teme_to_gcrs, nutation_iau2000a / nutation_matrix_2000a, both series validated bit-for-bit against the SOFA/ERFA (SOFA: Standards of Fundamental Astronomy; ERFA: Essential Routines for Fundamental Astronomy) nut00b/nut00a vectors; the 2000A table is machine-generated by tools/gen_nut00a.py), and IERS polar motion PEF→ITRF (PEF: pseudo-Earth-fixed) (src/frames.rs, teme_to_itrf / polar_motion_matrix per SOFA iauPom00, caller-supplied x_p/y_p) are delivered, and the fully CIO-based (CIO: Celestial Intermediate Origin) IAU 2006/2000A (X, Y, s) reduction (src/cio.rs: GCRS↔CIRS↔ITRS (CIRS: Celestial Intermediate Reference System; ITRS: International Terrestrial Reference System) via eraXys06a/eraC2ixys/ eraEra00/eraC2tcio, validated bit-for-bit against the SOFA vectors), and the independent ANISE/SPICE (ANISE: Attitude, Navigation, Instrument, Spacecraft, Ephemeris — a pure-Rust planetary-geometry toolkit; SPICE: Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, C-matrix, Events) numerical cross-check is delivered (xval/anise-frames/: gcrs_to_itrs_matrix vs ANISE's GCRF→ITRF93 (GCRF: Geocentric Celestial Reference Frame; ITRF93: International Terrestrial Reference Frame 1993) from JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)'s earth_latest_high_prec.bpc, the same IERS finals2000A EOP (Earth orientation parameters) fed to both, eight epochs 2020–2023 — max 0.028″, ≤ 0.86 m on the ground, ≤ 3.6 m at GNSS orbit, inside the <10 m target). The cross-check is a standalone, workspace-excluded crate so the MPL-2.0 (MPL: Mozilla Public License) / edition-2024 anise dependency never touches the published kshana crate or any default CI gate.)
  • Two-part Julian dates (the single-f64 JD is ~50 µs near 2020). (Delivered — src/jd2.rs Jd2; surfacing it through the time API and propagator epoch handling remains.)
  • Surface the loosely-/tightly-coupled GNSS/INS navigator across more scenario packs.
  • Golden numerics and calibration ensembles for the V&V suite; committed cross-platform golden hashes (reproducibility milestone).
  • Provenance as a first-class, citable asset (docs/PROVENANCE.md).

P2 — Quantum physics layer#

Today Kshana's quantum sensors are driven by published Allan/noise-budget coefficients (ACES/SHM/CSAC/optical-clock (ACES: Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space; SHM: Space Hydrogen Maser; CSAC: chip-scale atomic clock) datasheets), not simulated from first principles. The P2 layer adds first-principles cold-atom-interferometer (CAI) physics so error budgets can be derived, not just supplied:

  • Mach–Zehnder CAI phase, interferometer contrast, and cycle time. (Delivered — src/inertial/quantum_imu.rs; see docs/QUANTUM.md.)
  • Quantum projection / shot noise from first principles (not only its net Allan contribution). (Delivered — derives the q_va PSD (power spectral density) the classical model consumes.)
  • Vibration coupling — the interferometer acceleration→phase transfer function |H(ω)| = (4/ω²)sin²(ωT/2) and the white-PSD phase variance σ_Φ² = k_eff²·S_a·T³/3. (Delivered — src/inertial/quantum_imu.rs; the dominant real-device term, so error budgets now span the shot-noise floor and the vibration-limited regime above it.)
  • Coriolis/rotation and AC-Stark (AC: alternating-current) light-shift systematics. (Delivered — coriolis_phase / ac_stark_phase in src/inertial/quantum_imu.rs.)
  • Laser-phase noise and the remaining systematics (wavefront, fringe-ambiguity resolution). (Still to do.)
  • Two-part JD-backed long-horizon timing; carrier-phase + explicit receiver-clock state in tight coupling; a trajectory library beyond the single deterministic path.

See docs/QUANTUM-MODELS.md for exactly what is and is not modelled today. If you need first-principles CAI error budgets (e.g. CARIOQA-PMP-grade (CARIOQA: Cold Atom Rubidium Interferometer in Orbit for Quantum Accelerometry) or X-37B-style validation), the P2 layer is the path — and we welcome collaboration: see Support & professional services.

P3 — interoperability & standards depth#

  • Additional CCSDS message types (ODM/AEM/TDM (ODM: Orbit Data Message; AEM: Attitude Ephemeris Message)) and SPICE interop.
  • Receiver-domain parity (e.g. gLAB) for the GNSS measurement chain; multi-fault ARAIM.
  • Lunar / cislunar integrity (LunaNet). (In progress — src/lunar.rs: the lunar ARAIM engine (σ_URE = 30 m, P_sat = 1e-4), the MCI↔MCMF (MCI: Moon-centred inertial; MCMF: Moon-centred, Moon-fixed) cislunar frame reduction and selenographic lat/lon/alt, and a south-pole protection-level pass that quantifies the integrity gap against a 50 m alert limit. src/cr3bp.rs adds the Earth–Moon CR3BP (rotating-frame dynamics, RK4, Jacobi constant, Lagrange points — the three-body core a real NRHO (near-rectilinear halo orbit) needs). The differential-corrected 9:2 NRHO initial conditions are wired in and the south-pole pass runs as the lunar-integrity scenario kind; a DE-grade (DE: Development Ephemeris) ephemeris in the core, the de-normalised selenocentric transform of the corrected orbit and family continuation remain. Lunar work is maintained rather than expanded — see Priorities.)
  • A numerical propagator: the adaptive integrator core (src/integrator.rs, RK4 step-doubling and the Dormand–Prince RK5(4) embedded pair integrate_dopri) plus a hierarchical force model — the two-body gravity, the analytic J2 secular rates, the full J2–J6 zonal field (forces::zonal_accel), epoch-driven third-body (Sun and Moon) gravity integrated by the time-varying RHS (forces::third_body_accel
    • the src/ephem.rs low-precision Sun and Moon ephemerides + ForceModel::accel_at sampling them at epoch_jd_tt + t/86400), solar-radiation pressure on the same epoch-driven RHS (forces::srp_accel cannonball model + forces::conical_shadow umbra+penumbra eclipse + ForceModel::solar_radiation), velocity-dependent atmospheric drag (forces::drag_accel against the co-rotating forces::atmospheric_density Vallado exponential model + ForceModel::drag + the new ForceModel::accel_rv / velocity-passing RHS), and the propagator::propagate wiring are delivered (src/forces.rs, src/propagator.rs); the high-degree tesseral field, the NRLMSISE-00 thermospheric density, solar limb darkening, and DE-grade ephemeris accuracy remain — to complement the analytic SGP4/SDP4 path.
  • Batch orbit determination is delivered: src/orbit_determination.rs recovers an orbital state from ground-station ranges via the Gauss–Newton corrector (src/batch_ls.rs) over the two-body + J2 force model, with a sequential (unscented-filter) variant alongside the batch solver; range-rate/azimuth-elevation measurements and an analytic J2 state-transition matrix remain.
  • Alternative (GNSS-denied) PNT: the map-matching measurement model (src/mapmatch.rs, field_likelihood / map_match_likelihood) closes the loop on the shipped particle filter for terrain-/gravity-referenced navigation. The real SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) elevation reference map and its .hgt loader have shipped and are validated against a vendored public-domain NASA/USGS (NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration; USGS: United States Geological Survey) SRTM v3 tile (src/altpnt/terrain.rs); the EGM/EIGEN (EIGEN: European Improved Gravity model of the Earth by New techniques) gravity-anomaly reference map and its loader remain.

Maintained by Ashforde OÜ. Roadmap items are prioritised against real user and tender needs; nothing here is a delivery commitment.