blog:articles:software:orbital_calculator
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blog:articles:software:orbital_calculator [2019/04/26 11:42] – Phil Ide | blog:articles:software:orbital_calculator [2020/01/18 13:02] – [Database Maintenance] Phil Ide | ||
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====== Orbital Calculator ====== | ====== Orbital Calculator ====== | ||
- | {{blog:OrbitCalc2.png}} | + | |
+ | [{{ :blog:articles: | ||
Orbital Calculator is the result of satisfying a need. There are online calculators for working out the orbital characteristics for satellites and spacecraft orbiting Earth, and they’re pretty cool gadgets as far as that goes, but quite limiting. | Orbital Calculator is the result of satisfying a need. There are online calculators for working out the orbital characteristics for satellites and spacecraft orbiting Earth, and they’re pretty cool gadgets as far as that goes, but quite limiting. | ||
- | === === | + | |
As a sci-fi writer, I want more. What if I wanted to calculate orbits around Mars, or Jupiter, or Io? What if I wanted to do the same for one of the thousands of exoplanets we’ve discovered? What about purely imaginary planets, moons and asteroids? | As a sci-fi writer, I want more. What if I wanted to calculate orbits around Mars, or Jupiter, or Io? What if I wanted to do the same for one of the thousands of exoplanets we’ve discovered? What about purely imaginary planets, moons and asteroids? | ||
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Even better yet, you can export any data for satellites or gravitational masses – choosing exactly which ones to export – and share the files with other users, who can import them into their own databases. | Even better yet, you can export any data for satellites or gravitational masses – choosing exactly which ones to export – and share the files with other users, who can import them into their own databases. | ||
- | Using the program | + | //Note: you can click on any of the images to display them full size// |
+ | ===== Two Types of Orbital Calculation ===== | ||
+ | {{: | ||
+ | |||
+ | You can now also perform two-body calculations by selecting two gravitational masses and the distance between them. This will try and take into consideration a whole star-system full of planets by using the Solar system as a blueprint. It then compares this to the Newtonian/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Additional Enhancements ===== | ||
+ | Version 2 of the software makes many minor adjustments 'under the hood' to eliminate or reduce rounding errors and increase precision. This convenience is carried forward into the user-interface. Wherever it makes sense, for example, the '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is now an embedded context-sensitive help system, with many of its pages filled with additional information. For example, there is an explanation of gravitic time-dilation - did you realise you are not experiencing time at 'full speed'? | ||
+ | |||
+ | [{{ : | ||
+ | |||
+ | The **Gravitation and Motion** screen now calculates gravity, gravitational acceleration and escape velocity at the elevation you specify, as well as at the surface. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Wherever it is appropriate, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The layout of all the screens have been redesigned to be easier to read and consistent. This makes using the program a much more pleasant experience. | ||
+ | ==== Lagrange Points ==== | ||
+ | [{{: | ||
+ | |||
+ | The clipboard data has been tidied too, so it now uses spaces instead of tabs to align the data, making it much more compatible with writing programs and note-keeping software. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Lagrange points are usually calculated as the distance from the center of each of the two gravitational masses. In the real world though, you often want the distance from the surfaces of these bodies. For example, if you want to place a satellite at the Earth-Moon L4 Lagrange point, it is much more useful to know the location is 395,958 km from Earth and 400,597 km from the Moon. This also allows you to calculate the communications delay from the surface of one of these bodies and the satellite. | ||
+ | ==== Database Maintenance ==== | ||
+ | [{{ : | ||
+ | |||
+ | Wherever a value is more than 0.00 but less than 0.01, you'll see a ~ beside it to indicate this. Hovering over the value will, as stated above, reveal greater precision. For example, you can see the surface gravity of Betelgeuse is ~0.00. Hovering over it will display 0.0003. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== New Features ===== | ||
+ | An additional 11 new features have been added to the program, almost doubling its previous list of functions. Some of them are subtly embedded in pre-existing functions, so don't expect them all to have menu options of their own, but they all add up to make the software much more useful and easier to use. | ||
+ | |||
+ | One of these functions is the ability to enlarge the window contents by zooming in or out (without resizing the window). This is handy if you have issues reading the text at its natural resolution. | ||
+ | |||
+ | You are now able to control how frequently the program checks for updates - from every time the program is launched to no more than once per month. You can even disable update checking if you wish. This can be controlled on the new **Preferences Screen**, where you can also instruct the program to restore window sizes and positions and the zoom level. | ||
+ | ===== New Database Format ===== | ||
+ | Version 2 includes a new database format which brings several advantages. For example, ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This makes the version 1 database files incompatible with the new format. Never fear though, Version 2 can recognise and import from version 1 databases (so all your lovely data isn't lost), and you can even import from version 1 export files. Unfortunately you can't do it the other way around, but honestly, why would you want to? | ||
- | A host of new features were incorporated | + | ===== Feature List ===== |
+ | * **New Objects** added to database - six stars and one more asteroid | ||
+ | * **Automatic Calculation** wherever it makes sense, so you don't have to hit a ' | ||
+ | * **Copy to Clipboard** on most result screens | ||
+ | * **Database Stats** now provides totals | ||
+ | * **Repeat Last Calculation** now works even if you've removed both the host mass and satellite mass from the database | ||
+ | * **Import Data** recognises v1.x import files and databases (so you can import directly from an old database) | ||
+ | * **Export Data** to prune a database, separate project data or to share with friends | ||
+ | * **Preferences** to control update checking, restoring window sizes and positions | ||
+ | * **Gravitation and Motion** to calculate gravity, escape velocity and gravitational acceleration at the surface and at an elevation | ||
+ | * **Lagrange Points** calculated as distance from the surfaces | ||
+ | * **Two-Body Orbits** taking into consideration the masses of both host and satellite | ||
+ | * **Distance from Period** when all you know is the host mass and and the orbital period | ||
+ | * **Satellite Footprint from Altitude** | ||
+ | * **Visible Surface** of host mass as % | ||
+ | * **Latitude spread** of the footprint across the surface | ||
+ | * **Diameter** of footprint | ||
+ | * **Radius** of footprint | ||
+ | * **Surface Area** of footprint | ||
+ | * **Maximum Period of Visibility** of satellite from the ground | ||
+ | * **Age from Orbit** calculate someone' | ||
+ | * **Age and Weight on Solar System Planets** | ||
+ | * **Calculate Habitable Zone** (a.k.a. Goldilocks Zone) around a star | ||
+ | * **Time Dilation from Velocity** where velocity is a factor of the speed of light | ||
+ | * **Time Dilation from Orbit** factoring both gravitational time dilation and acceleration time dilation | ||
+ | * **Visibility Over Horizon** to determine the maximum distance an object can be seen | ||
+ | * **Context-sensitive Help** | ||
+ | * **Zoom-in, Zoom-out** if things are a little hard to read | ||
+ | * **Password Generator** to generate very strong passwords for those pesky internet logins | ||
+ | * **Multi-Platform** it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux | ||
+ | * **64-bit** versions available for all platforms | ||
+ | * **32-bit** versions available for Windows and Linux | ||
+ | * **Portable** means it doesn' | ||
- | * Calculate | + | ====== Download ====== |
- | * Calculate satellite footprint from its altitude generating: | + | You can download |
- | * percentage of visible area | + | |
- | * degrees (spread) of visible area | + | |
- | * how far across in km or miles the visible area is, taking into consideration the curvature of the planet | + | |
- | * surface area of footprint | + | |
- | * max time the satellite will be visible from the ground | + | |
- | * length of one complete orbit (in time) | + | |
- | * Calculate apparent age for someone who measures years in local time on another planet | + | |
- | * Tool for generating strong passwords of arbitrary length for those pesky internet logins | + | |
- | * Calculate start, middle, end and depth of Habitable Zone (Goldilocks Zone) for a star | + | |
- | * Calculate each of the five Lagrange points in a two-body system (examples: Earth-Sun, Earth-Moon etc.) | + | |
- | * Calculate time dilation for a spacecraft and the passage of time from an observer' | + | |
- | * Calculate gravitational acceleration | + | |
- | * Calculate escape velocity | + | |
- | The program is portable, meaning it can run off a USB stick without having to be installed. If you want to run it directly off your hard drive, just put it in a writeable folder | + | //**N.B. Windows and Linux versions are now available |
- | //**N.B.** If you ever want to roll back to the default database, look for the file orbit.dat in the same folder as the program, and either delete it or rename it to something else and then relaunch the program. It will always build the default database if it cannot find this file.// | + | ---- |
~~socialite~~ | ~~socialite~~ | ||
~~DISCUSSION~~ | ~~DISCUSSION~~ |
blog/articles/software/orbital_calculator.txt · Last modified: 2022/08/28 11:30 by Phil Ide