ANISE v0.7.0: The Analysis Engine

[ChristopherRabotin]

This release is a massive step forward, evolving ANISE from a SPICE replacement into a comprehensive mission analysis toolkit. The centerpiece is the brand-new Analysis Engine, a powerful, expression-based framework for defining, computing, and reporting on complex astrodynamical events and values.

The highlights of this new engine include:

• Expression-Based Reporting: Define what you want to compute—from simple orbital elements to complex vector projections—using StateSpec, ScalarExpr, and VectorExpr. The ReportScalars functionality then computes these values over any time series.
• Robust Event Finding: Locate precise moments in time when specific conditions are met. Find every apoapsis, periapsis, eclipse, or even when an elevation angle from a ground station crosses the horizon using the new Event system.
• First-Class Location Kernels: You can now define ground stations and other points of interest in new ANISE Location Kernel (.lka) files. These can be loaded directly into the Almanac to support azimuth, elevation, and range calculations with terrain masks.

Beyond the new engine, this release is packed with significant API improvements and internal refactors:

• Dynamic Kernel Management: You can now load SPK and BPC kernels with aliases and unload them on the fly (spk_unload, bpc_unload), offering much greater flexibility for complex simulations. This is powered by a significant internal refactor of the Almanac.
• Quaternions in Python: The rotation.Quaternion is now a first-class object in the Python API, providing a complete and robust interface for attitude dynamics.
• Upgraded Time Engine: A major update to the underlying hifitime library brings a cleaner, more powerful anise.time API and a host of new functionalities.

New features

• Analysis module to generate reports + Location Almanac datatype and its elevation mask by @ChristopherRabotin in Analysis module to generate reports + Location Almanac datatype and its elevation mask #515
• docs: Add detailed documentation to complex code sections by @ChristopherRabotin in docs: Add detailed documentation to complex code sections #518
• Feat/export quat python by @ChristopherRabotin in Feat/export quat python #517
• Event finding from scalar expressions by @ChristopherRabotin in Event finding from scalar expressions #519
• Add local time of ascending/descending node calculation by @ChristopherRabotin in Add local time of ascending/descending node calculation #534
• Expose Expression tree to Python by @ChristopherRabotin in Expose Expression tree to Python #536
• ANISE kernels' Lookup table use dynamic memory allocation + Almanac supports unloading by @ChristopherRabotin in ANISE kernels' Lookup table use dynamic memory allocation + Almanac supports unloading #530

Dependencies

• Update serde_dhall requirement from 0.12 to 0.13 by @dependabot[bot] in Update serde_dhall requirement from 0.12 to 0.13 #512
• Update nalgebra requirement from 0.33 to 0.34 by @dependabot[bot] in Update nalgebra requirement from 0.33 to 0.34 #505

Miscellaneous

• Publish the wheels packages by @ChristopherRabotin in Publish the wheels packages #508
• Fix Python typing (hopefully) by @translunar in Fix Python typing (hopefully) #528
• Update egui_logger requirement from 0.8.0 to 0.9.0 by @dependabot[bot] in Update egui_logger requirement from 0.8.0 to 0.9.0 #533

Full Changelog: 0.6.8...0.7.0

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This discussion was created from the release ANISE v0.7.0: The Analysis Engine.