Propagation Engine
The core engine is written in C++ and rendered through OpenGL. It models bodies, frames, propagation, and validation as shared infrastructure. KnownX MPT's mission planning controls sit above this layer. The engine currently supports: • Point-mass N-body gravitational propagation — bodies carry mass, position, and velocity. The engine propagates N-body gravitational attraction with configurable gravity sources and softening radii. • Displacement-aware surface collision — sphere-sphere and sphere-static collisions implemented with CPU displacement map sampling matched to GPU terrain rendering. • Propulsion modelling — commanded thrust with throttle control, specific impulse, propellant mass consumption, and variable mass dynamics. • Earth oblateness (J2) perturbation — planned for implementation as the primary accuracy improvement for LEO propagation fidelity. • Atmospheric drag — sequenced after J2 validation so orbital decay can be validated against documented LEO behavior.