The solar system consists of the sun, planets and large moons. They are also able to travel to distant parts of the solar system conventional vehicles cannot reach. Newer users find the fictional craft easier to pilot. Orbiter has both realistic and fictional spacecraft. Once mastered, navigation becomes smoother and easier. Users will find it takes some experimentation to get used to how these dynamics affect space travel. Orbiter incorporates planetary motion, space physics, and gravitation. Orbiter has now been used as a teaching aid in classrooms, and a large community of add-on developers has created a multitude of add-ons to allow users to fly assorted real and fictional spacecraft and adding new planets or solar systems. The simulator was first released on 27 November 2000 and several new versions have been released, with the most recent version 100830 released for free download on 30 August 2010. The developer, Martin Schweiger, felt that space flight simulators at the time were lacking in realistic physics based flight models and decided to write a simulator that made learning physics concepts enjoyable. Orbiter is a freeware space flight simulator program developed to allow users to operate simulated spacecraft using a detailed and realistic flight model. Braeunig’s Rocket and Space Technology website ( ) is designed for space travel aficionados who desire to learn more than the basics but want to avoid complex concepts and theories. To get the most out of Orbiter, it helps to have some knowledge of orbital mechanics. There is a special add-on forum at the Orbiter site to help programmers get started on the right foot.Īn excellent teaching tool, Orbiter is used by many science, math, and technology classes to help illustrate diverse subjects from space flight to trigonometry. It provides code libraries, sample code, utilities and documentation needed to produce original designs. However, developers can create add-ons like new spacecraft using the Orbiter Software Development Kit. The most recent version was released in August of 2010. At the time, he wanted a simulator that accurately reflected physics-oriented flight modeling. Orbiter was created in 2000 by developer Martin Schweiger. Shows the Nasa Space Shuttle in orbit over the Earth in the latest version of the Orbiter space flight simulator for Windows.

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