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.

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.

Parameter	Type	Description
`type`	`"eclipse"`	Marks the step as eclipse-aware
`energy_budget_wh`	number	Maximum energy the step may consume during eclipse
`eclipse_policy`	string	Power management strategy: `conservative`, `balanced`, or `aggressive`
`min_battery_soc`	number	Minimum battery state-of-charge to maintain (0-1)
`priority`	number	Scheduling priority relative to other eclipse steps

Eclipse Policies

Policy	Behaviour
`conservative`	Limits compute to 40% of eclipse battery capacity. Safe for missions where power margin is thin.
`balanced`	Uses up to 65% of eclipse battery. Default for most workloads.
`aggressive`	Uses 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 }
    }
  }'

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.

Parameter	Type	Description
`type`	`"window"`	Marks the step as window-adaptive
`quality_tiers`	object	Map of tier names to resource requirements
`min_tier`	string	Lowest acceptable tier (default: `minimal`)
`preferred_tier`	string	Tier the planner targets if time allows

Quality Tiers

Each tier defines the compute time, memory, and output size the step needs at that quality level.

Tier	Typical Use Case
`minimal`	Abbreviated result — good enough for monitoring or alerting
`standard`	Normal quality. Suitable for most operational workloads
`enhanced`	Higher fidelity output. Requires longer windows
`maximum`	Full-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.

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.

Parameter	Type	Description
`type`	`"pass"`	Marks the step as pass-aligned
`merge_strategy`	string	How segments are recombined: `concat`, `reduce`, or `latest`
`max_segments`	number	Maximum number of pass-aligned segments (default: unlimited)
`min_pass_duration_s`	number	Ignore passes shorter than this

Merge Strategies

Strategy	Behaviour
`concat`	Append all segment outputs in chronological order. Use for streaming data collection.
`reduce`	Apply a reduction function across segments (e.g., averaging model gradients).
`latest`	Only 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 }
    }
  }'

Event Types

Orbital primitive steps emit dedicated events in the execution event stream.

Event Type	Description
`eclipse_step.scheduled`	Eclipse step assigned to an eclipse window
`eclipse_step.energy_check`	Energy budget validated against battery state
`eclipse_step.started`	Execution begins in eclipse
`eclipse_step.completed`	Eclipse step finished within energy budget
`eclipse_step.deferred`	Deferred — insufficient battery for this eclipse
`window_step.tier_selected`	Quality tier chosen based on available window time
`window_step.started`	Window-adaptive step begins at selected tier
`window_step.completed`	Window step finished
`window_step.deferred`	No window large enough for even the minimal tier
`pass_step.decomposed`	Step split into pass-aligned segments
`pass_step.segment_started`	Individual segment begins during a pass
`pass_step.segment_completed`	Segment finished
`pass_step.merged`	All 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.

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

Getting Started

Planning Tools

Orbital Intelligence

CAE

Operator Agent

Mission Control

Orbital Runtime

Orbital Sim

Distributed Compute

SDKs

Resources

Orbital Compute Primitives

Orbital Compute Primitives

Eclipse Steps

Eclipse Policies

Window Steps

Quality Tiers

Pass Steps

Merge Strategies

Event Types

Combining Primitives

Presets

Agent Protocol

​Orbital Compute Primitives

​Eclipse Steps

​Eclipse Policies

​Window Steps

​Quality Tiers

​Pass Steps

​Merge Strategies

​Event Types

​Combining Primitives

Presets

Agent Protocol

Orbital Compute Primitives

Eclipse Steps

Eclipse Policies

Window Steps

Quality Tiers

Pass Steps

Merge Strategies

Event Types

Combining Primitives