[FREE best space simulator] space shuttles

[WBHoenig]

The graphics on that thing astound me. DGIII is a lot like FsP in that it integrates pax.

[runibl]

I have been flying Orbiter on and off for hmm I'm guessing around two years, might be more. And I can go in to orbit and land again (Just
learned the landing part few months ago) with the Shuttle fleet 3.8, and DGIII. I can go to the moon and back (still problems lifting off the moon
with the LEM and rendezvous with the CM) with NASSP and DGIII.
Also made some planetary trips with the DGIII.

I learned manual reentry and landing with the Shuttle, using AFCS MFD (Which is an autoreentry and landing MFD). And after watching a few of those
reentrys, I finally made my own manual reentry and landing. Been a while now, so I doubt I can do it still.

[ivo]

How realistic is Orbiter space flight simulator? I'm probably going to download it when I get home from school today.

[runibl]

I would say it's pretty much as real as it get's. Altough I never flew in space for real.

[ivo]

runibl wrote:
I would say it's pretty much as real as it get's. Altough I never flew in space for real.

I don't think any of us did

[SaVas]

Can you fly further than earths orbit? Like to Saturn?

[DanSteph]

Enough real to make a lot of people swearing to make their first docking to ISS
or launch in orbit. A bit of reading and the help of the good MFD to calculate
your trajectory is a requirment. at 19'000 km/h a small stick error can mean
thousand km difference at arrival.

The learning curve can be from medium for people that know orbital mechanism to
very hard for people that learned space physic only with star wars
(even once used to it you can make a prefect orbital injection using only instinct
and pure flying)

Anyway no need for math or complicated stuff, once the principle learned and with a bit of logic
and good "3d thinking" and using the right MFD a trip to mars, moon or jupiter
is easy.

Visiting Saturn's ring, landing on phobos, pluton, comet, mercure, landing the MER mission to mars,
launching Apollo in 69 or flying with the Xwing or the ship of 2001 space odyssey, a lot of things are possible in Orbiter.
You can even follow EXACTLY the real mission trajectory, launch date etc etc the math
and orbital physic in Orbiter are enough accurate to allow that.

Introduction from my homepage:

Orbiter is an amazing free 3D Space Simulator written by Dr. Martin Schweiger, Ph.D. It has exceptional graphics, but make no mistake. It is not a game! What sets this Space Simulator apart from all others is the accurate math and orbital physics, which makes reaching planets like Mars, a true challenge. There is also a great community around it that have created loads of add-ons - new spacecraft models, both historic and futuristic, navigation instruments, ground bases and lots of other things. Give it a try - you won't regret it if you are a space fan.
http://orbiter.dansteph.com/

If you love space you'll simply love it...

For french reader a complete article to get started and what orbiter can bring to you is available
here: http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php?disp=bienvenu

Dan



Post Edited ( 02-01-06 21:32 )

[WBHoenig]

It is as good as FS with FsP if using DGIII (althpouh completely different) and is free and I think open source.

[DanSteph]

Closed source but free.

Dan

[runibl]

If I remember correctly, then pluto is the only planet not included. But just use the addon.

[ivo]

This is a cool game which took me a while to learn. It is obviously not very realistic, but it is fun. Is there any add-on to make it more
realistic, and an add-on like the PMDG or LDS planes, where the whole cockpit is accesable to you?

[runibl]

Dan's Deltaglider III http://orbiter.dansteph.com/

[ivo]

Thanks, I'll go try it right now.

[pagir]

Orbiter is really awesome, and with Dan's addons, it's unbeatable!

I remember my most heroic flight with the DGIII: Earth-moon orbit,-mercury, landing on Mercury, Venus flyby, Refuelling at the ISS, then
Jupiter and aerobraking in its athmosphere...

But don't even try this at your first flight

Pagir

[runibl]

Just a correction of one of my previous post. I just checked when it was I downloaded my first Orbiter version.
Version 021202 which I downloaded in 8 februar 2003. That means I have been using Orbiter for almost exactly 3 years

And I finally found my first post on Dan's Orbiter forum (out of 2 posts, I didn't post much then) which was at 03-20-03 00:23. The reason I didn't
find it, was because I used to have the name IceCat as nick. I think I will make a new profile there with runibl, since it is not possible to change nick.