In the development of the DIRSIG4 model, one of the goals was to make the components of the overall model accessable to the user so that the user would have more control over the model and improved flexibility in modeling complex scenarios.
One of the components that was opened up to the user is the "instrument mount" object. The purpose of this object is to locate the "instrument" on the "platform". The mount object is analogous to how an actual instrument may be mounted within an aircraft or satellite bus. When the model eventually allows the user to place multiple instruments on the platform, the mount objects will be the mechanism that allows the user to describe where each instrument is located on that platform. The mount can be used not only to locate the instrument within the platfrom, but also to point the instrument relative to the platform. Some of the mount objects support "dynamic pointing" or "scanning" of the instrument as a function of time so that more complex acquisition geometries and methodologies can be modeled.