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Orbiter Sim Gets You Spaced

Posted by simoniker on from the marvellous-day-for-a-moonwalk dept.

stinky wizzleteats writes "Ever wondered why a space flight simulator never really got off the ground in the PC simulation scene? The answer is that it needed to be free. Dr. Martin Schweiger started the ball rolling a few years ago with Orbiter, a freeware Win32 DirectX based space flight simulator, in which you can fly orbital rendezvous, lunar landing, and even interplanetary missions. The current version has excellent graphics, including atmospheric descent and re-entry effects. There's also a burgeoning community of add-on developers, creating everything from sound add-ons and interplanetary navigation aids to complete working Apollo/Saturn 5 spacecraft. Virtual space agencies have even sprung up, using Roger Wilco and remote telemetry software (virtual mission control) to do Orbiter missions online. You can find the basic Orbiter files at Avsim or Sourceforge."

9 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Amazing Simulator by dirtyhank · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been "playing" Orbiter for over a year and it's an amazing piece of software. Beware it's nothing like those space combats games, this is a simulator with real physics. That's why it's very tough to control the first times you "play" it. But believe me, once you know the basic controls, how to read the different HUD, how to use the on-board computer and some basic space travel physics you'll be blown away by this simulator. BTW, print the manual, you'll need it.

    Launching the Shuttle into a low orbit is pretty easy, things get interesting when you try to recreate a Lunar landing mission, very cool. I still remember my first Mars landing, boy, that was tough :-).

    There're a few projects using Orbiter, one of my favourites is SimNASA. As you may guess it's a virtual NASA, you can join the agency and start being trained for future missions.

  2. WINE by hummassa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does it run under WINE or can it be compiled under WINElib?

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  3. I always thought ... by torpor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... that a NASA MMOPRG/FlightSim combo would be kind of cool.

    Imagine if you could join in an existing Space Program to build ISS, online, and participate in it somehow ... sort of an entire virtual NASA. 20 guys in Mission Control, 12 guys in Space, 8 on the ISS already, etc... that'd be fun, if the tech was right and well presented.

    Seems to me this would be a bit more intellectually stimulating than "Sims" or "Quake", anyway. I know for sure I'd be playing it, anyway...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    1. Re:I always thought ... by torpor · · Score: 2, Funny

      Dude the whole point of MMORPG's is to give Geeks something boring to do in the name of 'fun'.

      Sheesh. Where do you get your Geek Pride?

      --
      ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    2. Re:I always thought ... by stinky+wizzleteats · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Really? Why? Have you ever watched NASA-TV? It's incredibly boring and tedious. Why would you want that? Why would you want to be one of the 20 that sit in mission control and monitor telemetry. There's no science. Nothing new. Nothing exciting.

      Orbiter does have time acceleration, and most sim-missions have only a handful of people involved. The real fun comes in when something goes wrong. In fact, most of the really fun missions start with that premise - e.g. - we have to rendezvous and dock with a disabled Soyuz module in 48 hours or the crew is dead. Getting the launch window right, and doing all of the necessary orbital maneuvering in time is actually rather challenging, to say nothing of the task of launching efficiently and getting into the right parking orbit. It takes an Orbiter noob some time before they get a fictional ship into orbit, and quite a bit longer before they get their first historical ship into space without crashing back into the sea/siberia.

      One of the most fun missions I had was a simulation of the Voyager flight (I took Voyager 2's path), using some of the more advanced navigation tools to set up the gravity assists.

  4. Hypersleep? by SaintElmo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just what I always wanted! A simulated flight to Alpha Centauri. Only 43092850943275209384709632 days left to go!

    --
    these boxen have no names
  5. Isn't that a Shame by kalidasa · · Score: 2, Funny

    It will only run on Windows. And works best on Win98. It's like if the bare ceiling of the Sistine chapel had been made out of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese packets, and Michelangelo had painted his masterpiece on that.

  6. Really good learning tool... by PjSunray · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd think a program like this would offer a great opportunity for high school AP physics/math classes to get some hands on experience with the nitty-gritty details of orbital flight. You could setup a stepped curriculum of increasingly challenging missions/milestones, encourage teamwork to solve the problems, etc. I wouldâ(TM)ve loved something like this back in the dayâ¦

    Oh yes, and Iâ(TM)ve been running Orbiter on and off for the past couple of years. Very steep learning curve, but itâ(TM)s well worth it. Iâ(TM)ve spent hours tinkeringâ¦trying to get really good at establishing precise orbits, finding the ISS, docking (unsuccessfully).

    Finally, WRT WINEâ¦I did try it (a while ago), and it seemed to work like most of the other semi successful games Iâ(TM)ve triedâ¦i.e. it kinda worked, but was missing some functionality. Oh, FWIW, I was using WINEX 3.0.

    no sig :(

  7. Karma Whoring by Picass0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you dig the Shuttle Simulator, you also need to try Celestia (solar system/outer space simulator)