Every figure on this platform traces to a document you can read.

Models for Propagation of NORAD Element Sets (SGP4/SDP4)

SGP4 is only valid against element sets generated by the same model. It is a general-perturbations theory, not an ephemeris: kilometre-level at epoch, degrading with element age.

World Geodetic System 1984 — Its Definition and Relationships

Ellipsoid only. No geoid undulation — station altitudes are carried as given, which for this roster is orthometric height and differs from ellipsoidal height by tens of metres.

Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time

No UT1−UTC or polar motion. Sub-arcsecond against the frame error already carried by TEME, so it is not the limiting term.

Low-precision solar position

Quoted to 0.01 deg over 1950-2050; measured under 0.05 deg against the 2026 equinoxes and solstices. Ecliptic latitude, nutation and aberration are dropped. isEclipsed() is a cylinder rather than a cone and ignores the penumbra, so a console entry or exit time is right to a few seconds, not to the second; solarFractionKm() adds the conic umbra and penumbra as an illuminated fraction for energy work, which narrows the umbra by 31.9 km at 550 km. Both take the Earth as a sphere at the equatorial radius, which is 21.4 km wrong at the poles, so the conic correction is not quoted without that one beside it.

Nominal solar radius, and the astronomical unit

The two constants are exact by definition, so the accuracy question is entirely in what uses them. solarFractionKm() takes the Sun as a uniform disc, which ignores limb darkening, and takes the Earth as an opaque sphere, which ignores atmospheric refraction bending sunlight into the geometric umbra. Refraction is the larger of the two at LEO and is larger than the conic correction the model exists to make.

Gaussian beam propagation and aperture truncation

A textbook rather than a standard, and marked as one. The Gaussian relations are exact; the modelling choices around them are not. M squared here is an EFFECTIVE beam quality absorbing both source quality and the difference between a truncated Gaussian and a true one, rather than a diffraction integral over the real pupil, so it partly double counts with the truncation ratio. The truncation ratio itself is a stated input because a/1.12 and a/2 differ by more than a factor of two in delivered power.

Orbit Data Messages (OPM / OMM / OEM / OCM)

OMM is consumed in the JSON serialisation CelesTrak and Space-Track publish, and re-emitted as KVN. OEM is emitted from SGP4 samples, so it inherits SGP4 accuracy — it is not a fitted ephemeris.

Tracking Data Message

Predicted angles from the propagator, not observations from an antenna. The format is the same; the provenance is not, and the file says so in its COMMENT block.

Conjunction Data Message

In live mode, real public CDMs from Space-Track. In mock mode, a synthesised record in the same shape — badged as modelled, never as retrieved.

Simple Schedule Format Specification

Time Code Formats

Space Communication Cross Support — Service Management (SCCS-SM)

SCCS-SM is how a booking against a cross-supported ground network is actually negotiated. BeamDesk does not speak it: the live proxy is GET-only by construction and cannot reserve a contact.

Space Link Extension — Return All Frames, Return Channel Frames, Forward CLTU

SLE is the transfer service a booked contact delivers data over. There is no comms stack in this console — no framing, no coding, no data flow. Named for accuracy of description only.

Calculation of free-space attenuation

Attenuation by atmospheric gases and related effects

Annex 2 approximate method — equivalent heights and a cosec(θ) slant path, valid above 5° elevation. Not the Annex 1 line-by-line summation.

Propagation data and prediction methods required for the design of Earth-space telecommunication systems

§2.2.1.1 attenuation exceeded 0.01% of an average year, with the standard extrapolation to other percentages.

Characteristics of precipitation for propagation modelling

The full recommendation is a global gridded digital map. BeamDesk uses a coarse latitude-band climatology and, in live mode, prefers the observed rate from Open-Meteo. Both are flagged EST. The bands were fitted against the -7 map and have not been refitted to -8, which is tolerable only because they were never the map to begin with.

Specific attenuation model for rain for use in prediction methods

Rain height model for prediction methods

Applications of wireless power transmission via radio frequency beam

A Report, not a Recommendation — it surveys practice and recommends nothing, so nothing here is computed from it. It is cited because §5 names 5.8 GHz among the bands used for RF-beam WPT and §2.9 puts a GEO solar-power ground receiver at roughly 10-50 km2, which is the first published source behind two figures this console had been carrying on its own authority: the band, and the utility profile at 11,000 acres (44.5 km2). It does NOT make the band available. A Report is not the Radio Regulations, 5.8 GHz still has no Article 21 space-to-Earth row, and the caveat on itu-rr-21 stands exactly as written.

Power flux-density limits for space stations in shared frequency bands

The Article 21 limits protect terrestrial services sharing the band; they are not a safety limit. A power downlink at these levels would need a dedicated allocation and coordination — the limits are shown because they are the binding regulatory constraint, not because this passes them. The three Table 21-4 rows in exposure.ts were carried over from the Edition of 2020 and read against WRC-23 rather than against the 2024 text itself: WRC-23 left Article 21 alone for S, X and Ka, and Resolution 775 (Rev.WRC-23) only invites WRC-27 to consider limits at 71-76 and 81-86 GHz. Someone with the 2024 edition should confirm the three rows verbatim.

Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz)

Table 5 whole-body reference level, incident power density averaged over 30 minutes and over 30 cm². Compared against modelled beam intensity, so the ratio is only as good as the aperture assumption behind it.

Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Electric, Magnetic and EMF, 0 Hz to 300 GHz

Carried as an independent cross-check on ICNIRP. The two agree at these frequencies; showing both is what makes the agreement meaningful.

Beamed Power Interface — Draft Specification

BeamDesk wrote this one. It is not published by a standards body, has not been through any accredited process, and at the time of writing no one outside this project has reviewed it. It is listed because BeamDesk emits data that follows it, and a registry that concealed its own author's document would be the one overclaiming. The conformance claim is BROKER/L1/no-annex: of 134 normative requirements, 36 are implemented, 17 are not, 78 do not apply to a broker that never radiates, and 3 are done but explicitly not offered for reliance. Every message it emits is unsigned, because a console holds no organisational key.