As many of you might be aware of the Google Earth program that lets you view Earth satelite photos really up close. Then we have the NASA Worldwind, that does the same thing, and includes actual 3D elevation of the whole Earth.
But there are many other fun programs to play around with, and fule the people peeping at your laptop, in to beliving you are some "guy".
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Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator
http://www.orbitersim.com
Description:
ORBITER is a free flight simulator that goes beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to deploy a satellite, rendezvous with the International Space Station or take the futuristic Delta-glider for a tour through the solar system - the choice is yours.
But make no mistake - ORBITER is not a space shooter. The emphasis is firmly on realism, and the learning curve can be steep. Be prepared to invest some time and effort to brush up on your orbital mechanics background. A good starting point is JPL's Space Flight Learners' Workbook.
Basicaly:
It is a space flight simulatior. As real as it gets. the learning curve is STEEP. Because you are dealing with reality, like lifting of and landing a shuttle.
You can lift of rom Earth, get in to orbit, go to Mars, land and all of this without loading in between.
Fucking amazing I tell you.
Screens:
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery64.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery18.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery60.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://orbiter.dansteph.com/screenshot/ ... er_021.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery59.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/Jupiter-large.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery63.jpg[/lvlshot]
Lanch Satelites in to orbit:
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/van-large.jpg[/lvlshot]
Detailed satelite images:
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery45.jpg[/lvlshot]
On the moon:
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery51.jpg[/lvlshot]
Fully working instruments:
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery34.jpg[/lvlshot]
Perfect Landing:
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/STAchase2.jpg[/lvlshot]
Feeling Licky? Fly the Apollo to the Moon, from lanch to Moon to return to Earth
[lvlshot]http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/NASSP_Panel.jpg[/lvlshot]
Ship systems:
[lvlshot]http://orbiter.dansteph.com/download/DG ... gpanel.jpg[/lvlshot]
More: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/gallery.html
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Celestia
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
Discription:
Space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.
All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across.
A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.
Celestia is expandable. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that's not enough, you can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects.
Basicaly:
It will let you visit any planet, star, planets at other stars commet, nebula, quasar, pulsar, black hole in our galaxy. point click zoom and go. Fully 3D. Fully texured. Full of fact info. Make movies with it.
Screens:
[lvlshot]http://www.shatters.net/celestia/images ... s-mars.jpg[/lvlshot]
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Stellarium
http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/
Discription:
http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/features.html
Basicaly:
It will show you all of the stars visible from earth, as if you where observing them from outside. And can calculate solar eclips, etc, a star gazers tool.
Screens:
http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html
Amazing, eh?
Here is something interesting to play aound with
Here is something interesting to play aound with
Last edited by Turbine on Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Freakaloin
- Posts: 10620
- Joined: Tue May 07, 2002 7:00 am
can you fly to Cruithne?
Earth's second one is called Cruithne. It was discovered in 1986 and it takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity.
Earth's second one is called Cruithne. It was discovered in 1986 and it takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity.
[url=http://profile.mygamercard.net/astr0chimp][img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/astr0chimp.jpg[/img][/url]
::[url=http://www.astrochimp.net]astrochimp dot net[/url]::
::[url=http://www.astrochimp.net]astrochimp dot net[/url]::
I've used Celestia before, it's quite good. You can even download much bigger texture packs for it, which are supposed to make the planets look a ton better. I haven't tried it though.
Anyone remember the program that allows you to zoom on the surface of the moon, really close like land level and fly around. There was an addon for earth too (but if I remember, the earth one wasn't as sharp as the moon).
Anyone remember the program that allows you to zoom on the surface of the moon, really close like land level and fly around. There was an addon for earth too (but if I remember, the earth one wasn't as sharp as the moon).
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+JuggerNaut+
- Posts: 22175
- Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2001 7:00 am
