Philip P. Ide

Author, programmer, science enthusiast, half-wit.
Life is sweet. Have you tasted it lately?

User Tools

Site Tools


blog:articles:software:orbital_calculator

This is an old revision of the document!


Orbital Calculator

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 though, 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 and moons?

I wrote Orbital Calculator to handle just about any proposition. You can add new gravitational masses (the things you want to orbit) for easy and consistent recall. You can add satellites too, so you can recall their orbital data at any time. You can create temporary calculations (not stored for later recall), and you can edit orbital parameters without changing the stored data, so you can play “what if…”.

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.

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 and double-click it. This is a free download – please go to the Downloads page.

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.

This website uses cookies. By using the website, you agree with storing cookies on your computer. Also you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree leave the website.More information about cookies

Discussion

Enter your comment:
I D J S Q
 
blog/articles/software/orbital_calculator.1550833789.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/02/22 11:09 by Phil Ide

Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license: Copyright © Phil Ide
Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki