Some notes on the "FAKERAT" software.

The FAKERAT represents new branch of FAKE software 
developments started in 1979 by T.J.Pearson (caltech) to 
support simulations of ground-based VLBI experiments. 
In 1983 D.L.Meier (JPL) added  the ability to simulate 
space VLBI experiments as part of the QUASAT mission 
studies. In 1989/1990 D.W.Murphy (JPL) added the VSOP 
spacecraft constraints since they have a major 
impact of the science return from this missions. The program 
with the spacecraft constraints and several additional 
features was subsequently renamed fakesat.
In oder to make fakesat easier to run for those inexperienced 
in using fake, an interactive interface, fakesat_menu, was 
written in 1993 by D.W.Murphy. Fakesat_menu works by creating 
a C shell script, .fakesat-tmp.csh, which contains all the 
commands necessary tu run fakesat. This script is then
executed automatically as a background process. 

We continued these developments by creating a new branch of 
the software connected with RadioAstron mission; we call 
this version as "FAKERAT". Because of moon-perturbed nature 
of RadioAstron orbit it is impossible to use simple Kepler 
approximation. Instead, interpolated table of state vectors 
will be used. Therefore, fakesat orbit block was completely 
replaced. 
Second, RadioAstron spacecraft attitude control system imposes 
particular constraints different from those applied in VSOP 
mission. Therefore, software section connected with the analysis 
of such constraints was essentially rewritten. Other modifications 
were related with peculiarities of visualization connected 
with long period RadioAstron orbit. In a given version of 
the FAKERAT only one RadioAstron spacecraft may be treated, 
while a formal  field for VSOP exists.

What does this mean? 

If one would edit manually "menu_defaults" file he must modified 
VSOP field as well, to keep interface running. Such occasion 
may happen when adding or deleting radio telescopes or tracking 
stations to the corresponding list. It is a pity to note that 
any mistakes in such modifications could lead to process crash. 
Therefore, we recommend to keep saved "menu_defaults" file for 
such an occasion. We plan to improve FAKERAT software in a future 
to exclude such situations. We also plan to recover next options: 
source view, sat view, telemetry ant, modelfit, modplot, visplot
dirty beam and clean map.

We are grateful to Dave Murphy for his kind permission to use 
"fakesat" as a basis for "FAKERAT" package. We also use in 
considerable volume his User's Guide for the package. Without 
such a basis independent development of such scheduling software 
would take much longer time, if it were possible at all.