Spacecraft orbits idea

[chris]

I've been considering a simple modification to the way that Celestia renders spacecraft trajectory. It seems like it could be useful to display just the portion of the trajectory that a spacecraft has travelled up to the current time rather than the entire mission trajectory. Spacecraft with Keplerian orbits instead of sampled trajectories would be unaffected by the change.

Does their need to be an option to switch between two methods of showing spacecraft trajectories? Or could I just replace the existing full trajectory display with time evolving trajectories?

--Chris

[maxim]

I would find it helpfull to see it two colored - would this be possible?
Otherwise I would prefere the option solution.

maxim

[alphap1us]

Hi Chris,

i think that having every option switchable is nice. So I would vote for a toggle.

Now that I have your attention, I also think that it would be good to toggle even mroe things in Celestia, like "Show more/fewer asteroids" (based on size) "Enable/Disable Billboards" and others.

All these sorts of things would reduce any editing of ssc files and such and thus I think would be a good thing. Cheers,

Joe

[Guest]

I have been reading the forums for some months now, and this is my first post.
Firstly thanks to Chris and others for this glorious desktop view of the universe.

With regard to Chris's Question, Maxim's suggestion of two colours seems a good one, I think that to do-away with the future trajectory completely may not be the best plan.

Although I feel I have no right to request anything! I know Chris was also thinking of having the ability to display spacecraft trajectories relative to a planet (from a March 15th post of his) This would be great in combination with the two colours for observing cassini etc.

If two colours is difficult, go for the toggle ! Thanks again for a great program.

[granthutchison]

I know Chris was also thinking of having the ability to display spacecraft trajectories relative to a planet (from a March 15th post of his)...

If I understand what you mean, it's possible to do that right now, with an appropriate planet-centred xyz - getting the orientation right is slightly tricky, since it usually involves a coordinate transformation from JPL Horizons to Celestia, but the capacity is present in Celestia already.

Grant

[chris]

I know Chris was also thinking of having the ability to display spacecraft trajectories relative to a planet (from a March 15th post of his)...

If I understand what you mean, it's possible to do that right now, with an appropriate planet-centred xyz - getting the orientation right is slightly tricky, since it usually involves a coordinate transformation from JPL Horizons to Celestia, but the capacity is present in Celestia already.

Grant

Yes, but it would be nice to be able to show planet-centered trajectories without having to create an entirely different .ssc. I'm not sure how to expose this in the UI--some sort of trajectory plotter dialog is all that comes to mind.

--Chris