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Orbital Compute Primitives

Standard compute steps treat satellites like ground servers. Orbital primitives don’t — they decompose workloads around the physical realities of eclipse boundaries, contact windows, and ground passes.
New in Orbital Resilience — Eclipse, Window, and Pass steps extend the existing step schema. All existing presets and custom workloads continue to work unchanged.

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Eclipse Steps

Eclipse steps run during battery-only orbital night periods. They carry an explicit energy budget so the planner never over-commits the bus during eclipse.
ParameterTypeDescription
type"eclipse"Marks the step as eclipse-aware
energy_budget_whnumberMaximum energy the step may consume during eclipse
eclipse_policystringPower management strategy: conservative, balanced, or aggressive
min_battery_socnumberMinimum battery state-of-charge to maintain (0-1)
prioritynumberScheduling priority relative to other eclipse steps

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Eclipse Policies

PolicyBehaviour
conservativeLimits compute to 40% of eclipse battery capacity. Safe for missions where power margin is thin.
balancedUses up to 65% of eclipse battery. Default for most workloads.
aggressiveUses up to 85% of eclipse battery. Use only when the next sunlit window is guaranteed to fully recharge.
curl -X POST https://rotastellar-cae.subhadip-mitra.workers.dev/v1/plan \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Origin: https://rotastellar.com" \
  -d '{
    "satellite_id": "25544",
    "custom_job": {
      "name": "Eclipse Compute",
      "steps": [
        {
          "id": "night_inference",
          "name": "Battery-Only Inference",
          "type": "eclipse",
          "location": "onboard",
          "energy_budget_wh": 12.5,
          "eclipse_policy": "balanced",
          "min_battery_soc": 0.3,
          "compute_s": 120,
          "output_mb": 5
        }
      ],
      "policy": { "objective": "balanced", "deadline_orbits": 4 }
    }
  }'

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Window Steps

Window steps adapt their output quality based on how much time is available in the current orbital window. The planner selects a quality tier automatically — no manual tuning required.
ParameterTypeDescription
type"window"Marks the step as window-adaptive
quality_tiersobjectMap of tier names to resource requirements
min_tierstringLowest acceptable tier (default: minimal)
preferred_tierstringTier the planner targets if time allows

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Quality Tiers

Each tier defines the compute time, memory, and output size the step needs at that quality level.
TierTypical Use Case
minimalAbbreviated result — good enough for monitoring or alerting
standardNormal quality. Suitable for most operational workloads
enhancedHigher fidelity output. Requires longer windows
maximumFull-resolution result. Only feasible in long sunlit windows
The planner evaluates the remaining time in the assigned orbital window and selects the highest tier that fits. If even minimal doesn’t fit, the step is deferred to the next window. 
{
  "id": "process_imagery",
  "name": "Adaptive Image Processing",
  "type": "window",
  "location": "onboard",
  "quality_tiers": {
    "minimal":  { "compute_s": 30,  "memory_mb": 256,  "output_mb": 10 },
    "standard": { "compute_s": 90,  "memory_mb": 512,  "output_mb": 50 },
    "enhanced": { "compute_s": 180, "memory_mb": 1024, "output_mb": 120 },
    "maximum":  { "compute_s": 360, "memory_mb": 2048, "output_mb": 300 }
  },
  "preferred_tier": "enhanced"
}
The selected tier is recorded in the plan response under placement_decisions[].quality_tier and in the event stream as window_step.tier_selected.

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Pass Steps

Pass steps are atomic units of work that the planner decomposes around ground contact windows. A long-running task is broken into segments that align with pass start/end times, with configurable merge strategies for reassembling results.
ParameterTypeDescription
type"pass"Marks the step as pass-aligned
merge_strategystringHow segments are recombined: concat, reduce, or latest
max_segmentsnumberMaximum number of pass-aligned segments (default: unlimited)
min_pass_duration_snumberIgnore passes shorter than this

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Merge Strategies

StrategyBehaviour
concatAppend all segment outputs in chronological order. Use for streaming data collection.
reduceApply a reduction function across segments (e.g., averaging model gradients).
latestOnly the last segment’s output is kept. Use for iterative refinement.
curl -X POST https://rotastellar-cae.subhadip-mitra.workers.dev/v1/plan \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Origin: https://rotastellar.com" \
  -d '{
    "satellite_id": "25544",
    "custom_job": {
      "name": "Multi-Pass Collection",
      "steps": [
        {
          "id": "collect",
          "name": "Pass-Aligned Data Collection",
          "type": "pass",
          "location": "onboard",
          "merge_strategy": "concat",
          "min_pass_duration_s": 120,
          "compute_s": 60,
          "output_mb": 200
        }
      ],
      "policy": { "objective": "max_reliability", "deadline_orbits": 6 }
    }
  }'

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Event Types

Orbital primitive steps emit dedicated events in the execution event stream.
Event TypeDescription
eclipse_step.scheduledEclipse step assigned to an eclipse window
eclipse_step.energy_checkEnergy budget validated against battery state
eclipse_step.startedExecution begins in eclipse
eclipse_step.completedEclipse step finished within energy budget
eclipse_step.deferredDeferred — insufficient battery for this eclipse
window_step.tier_selectedQuality tier chosen based on available window time
window_step.startedWindow-adaptive step begins at selected tier
window_step.completedWindow step finished
window_step.deferredNo window large enough for even the minimal tier
pass_step.decomposedStep split into pass-aligned segments
pass_step.segment_startedIndividual segment begins during a pass
pass_step.segment_completedSegment finished
pass_step.mergedAll segments merged using the configured strategy
Eclipse steps with aggressive policy and low min_battery_soc can leave the satellite with insufficient power for the next sunlit boot sequence. Use conservative margins for early-stage missions.

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Combining Primitives

Orbital primitives can be mixed with standard steps and with each other in the same DAG. Use depends_on as usual: 
{
  "steps": [
    { "id": "capture", "type": "pass", "merge_strategy": "concat", "depends_on": [] },
    { "id": "process", "type": "window", "preferred_tier": "enhanced", "depends_on": ["capture"] },
    { "id": "compress", "type": "eclipse", "eclipse_policy": "balanced", "depends_on": ["process"] }
  ]
}

Presets

Built-in workloads that use orbital primitives

Agent Protocol

How agents handle orbital primitive events at runtime