Each spacecraft's trajectory is described by coordinate sets that are maintained in the SSC's database. These coordinate sets may be definitive, predictive or a combination of both.
Each coordinate set corresponds to a point in time. For a given spacecraft, the time interval between its coordinate sets remain constant. However the time interval used for one spacecraft might not be the same as that of another spacecraft.
For each spacecraft, the Locator form displays the time interval that separates its associated coordinate sets. These intervals are listed in seconds under the column labeled "DATABASE RESOLUTION" / "seconds".
Given a spacecraft and a time range, the number of coordinate sets that are retrieved from the database can be determined by dividing the length of the applicable requested time by the corresponding database resolution. This calculated number can be reduced by increasing the time interval between the coordinate sets that are to be returned. The column on the Locator form labeled "DATABASE RESOLUTION" / "fctr" (abbreviation for "factor"), allows one to do just that.
The factor value is that value by which the "DATABASE RESOLUTION" / "seconds" is multiplied. The resulting product represents the new time interval (in seconds) that will be employed when fetching coordinate sets from the database.
The default factor is 1. This will result with the fetching of all available database coordinate sets that exist within the requested time range for the given spacecraft.
A factor value of 2 will result with every second coordinate set to be fetched. A factor value of 3 will result with every third coordinate set to be fetched, etc.