Nyx: Comprehensive Spaceflight Dynamics

Empowering flight dynamics engineers with open-source software

Nyx is revolutionizing the field of flight dynamics engineering as a powerful, open-source tool for mission design and orbit determination. From trajectory optimization to orbit estimation, Nyx is built for speed, automation, and scalability.

Nyx has proven mission-critical reliability, already contributing to the success of three lunar missions.

Showcase

The website has the latest use cases

GEO Low Thrust Orbit Raising & StationKeeping

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James Webb Space Telescope Monte Carlo Simulation

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Orbit Determination of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

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Documentation

The documentation is currently being updated. If you have specific use cases you would like to see documented, please open a Github issue or use the contact form

Quick start

Rust

To install Nyx, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/nyx-space/nyx.git
2. Navigate to the directory: cd nyx
3. Run any of the examples, e.g. RUST_LOG=info cargo run --example 01_orbit_prop --release

Compilation

Nyx uses lld, the LLVM linker, for faster compilation times. You may need to manually install lld depending on your distribution. On Ubuntu, this command is sudo apt install clang lld.

Python

For Python projects, get started by installing the library via pip: pip install nyx_space.

Important: The Python package has been temporarily disabled. Refer to https://github.com/nyx-space/nyx/issues/311 for details.

License

Nyx is provided under the AGPLv3 License. By using this software, you assume responsibility for adhering to the license. Refer to the pricing page for an FAQ on the AGPLv3 license. Notably, any software that incorporates, links to, or depends on Nyx must also be released under the AGPLv3 license, even if you distribute an unmodified version of Nyx.

Versioning

Nyx mostly adheres to SemVer. New patch versions should be rare. Updated dependencies trigger a new minor version. However new fields in structures and new behavior may also be added with minor releases, but the public facing initializers and functions should not significantly change (but may still change).

Major releases are for dramatic changes.

Author information

Chris Rabotin is a GNC and flight dynamics engineer with a heavy background in software.

I currently work for Rocket Lab USA as the lead flight dynamics engineer on both Blue Ghost lunar lander missions. -- Find me on LinkedIn.

External contributions

Contributions are licensed under AGPLv3 and may also be relicensed under a commercial license by Nyx Space. Contributors retain ownership of their copyrights but grant Nyx Space broad rights as outlined in the Contributor License Agreement (CLA).