MONTE for Orbit Determination

Monte is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) signature astrodynamic computing platform. Its main interface is a collection of
Python-language libraries that can be used either for one-o analyses or to build high-quality software applications. Perhaps nowhere
is Monte’s versatility and excellence better demonstrated than in its use for operational orbit determination (OD). Over the period
from 2007 to 2016, Monte was the prime OD solution for fourteen JPL flight projects, and secondary for seven non-JPL projects.
These missions span the range of Solar System destinations and operational protocols, yet each were successfully serviced by Monte’s
flexible OD library.
This paper reviews the missions on which Monte has been used for OD, with an eye toward pointing out the di erent ways it has
been deployed to solve unique problems. It also gives an outline of the main elements of the orbit determination library and how they
work together to navigate flight missions.