Useful Helpers Repository (Programs/Spreadsheets etc.)

[selden]

JAQAR provides a free utility which generates xyzv trajectories for interplanetary flight.

JAQAR's SwingBy can be used to generate Hohmann tranfer orbits between any of the Solar System planets for any epoch you specify. The free version will find one intermediate flyby which improves fuel usage if you select that option. More options are available when a commercial license is purchased.

http://www.jaqarsoftware.com/swingby.html
[url updated 18Apr09 ...s]

It will generate xyzv data in its .tf files if you select the SwingBy menu Options/ "Write Trajectory Files of best solution". You'll have to edit them into Celestia's format and specify
OrbitFrame { EquatorJ2000 { Center "Sol" } }
in the SSC file.

For example:

Code: Select all

"Orbit_to_Mars" "Sol" {

   Radius 0.00002515 # 165 ft. tall
   Class "spacecraft"

    SampledOrbit "test-11sep75.xyz"
   OrbitFrame { EquatorJ2000 { Center "Sol" } }

   BodyFrame { EclipticJ2000 { Center "Sol"}}
   FixedRotation {}

}

[Reiko]

Since Rassilon is (halfway) back I thought I'd ask him about his good tools that were available at his "Celestial Visions", mainly the SSC Generator and the online atmosphere creator called "Atmosphere Gauge 3.0", I think.

Bottom line is I got his permission to use/host/modify his tools. The only problem is that the website is since long gone and I can't find the online atmosphere creator (Atmosphere Gauge 3.0) anymore. Rassilon himself is trying to taking a look at his stuff, if he finds it somewhere.
So if any of you happen to have a working copy of this program, please send them to me, so that I can put it back online.

But the good news is that I had downloaded his SSC generator, that works also offline as an HTML. This page has been uploaded to my place here.
You can use it normally online I think, based on quick test from myself.
The junk that gets filled in (don't know from what) can get cleared out by hitting the "Reset" Button. And then fill in what is necessary.

As you can see from the year, this good program has some time on its back. So when someone wants to develop it further or to adapt it to the new Celestia features, the permission has been granted by Rassilon.
It would nonetheless nice in this case to give Rassilon a note of that.

Best regards,

Guckytos

EDIT: Changed the URL to the SSC generator, as PlutonianEmpire was so kind to provide me a copy with the full generator with all descriptions of planet classes.

Do you know if there is an offline version available for the SSC generator?

[Guckytos]

Do you know if there is an offline version available for the SSC generator?

Hi Reiko,

you just have to save the ssc.html to your local drive and then just run the page in your browser for it to work. That's what I did and why I remembered this very useful tool

Best regards,

Guckytos

[duds26]

Sometimes we need to calculate things out with astronomically large numbers.
And Calculator (on Windows) doesn't do so well in this department.
For all celestians that need to calculate with big numbers.
Calculator++ http://www.iloc.com/products/calculator/index.html
It's written in Java and available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X,...

[BobHegwood]

Hey, thanks very much for the calculator links duds...

Was very easy to install (and use) and the setup routine even updated my Java installation
to the latest release. Very nice add-on indeed.

Thanks again, Brain-Dead

[t00fri]

Hey, thanks very much for the calculator links duds...

Was very easy to install (and use) and the setup routine even updated my Java installation
to the latest release. Very nice add-on indeed.

Thanks again, Brain-Dead

Hey Bob,

now you got all the tools to check that whenever you take the circumference of an arbitrary circle and
divide it by it's diameter, you find this amazing number, the first 500 digits of which read:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620
8998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117
4502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867
8316527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631
5588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941
5116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518
857527248912279381830119491



cheers,
Fridger

[Chuft-Captain]

now you got all the tools to check that whenever you take the circumference of an arbitrary circle and
divide it by it's diameter, you find this amazing number, the first 500 digits of which read:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620
8998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117
4502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867
8316527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631
5588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941
5116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518
857527248912279381830119491



cheers,
Fridger

Yeah, but what tool is he going to use to measure the diameter and circumference of his circle to THAT level of accuracy?

[t00fri]

Yeah, but what tool is he going to use to measure the diameter and circumference of his circle to THAT level of accuracy?

well observed...that was the (hidden) joke in my post
I basically wanted to display that familiar number to 500 digits accuracy ...

Fridger

[BobHegwood]

Yeah, but what tool is he going to use to measure the diameter and circumference of his circle to THAT level of accuracy?

well observed...that was the (hidden) joke in my post
I basically wanted to display that familiar number to 500 digits accuracy ...

Fridger

I caught the hidden joke immediately upon reading your first post here...
I also know your twisted? sense of humor, so it was easy to see.

That's alright though. I, for some strange reason, really enjoy it when you try
to torment me.

Thanks Doctor. Much appreciated and I had a great laugh.

[t00fri]

Now guys....comes the real challenge:

someone must have been able to calculate that above ratio ( ==> ? ) of the circle's perimeter/diameter to 500 digits or arbitrarily more,

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620
8998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117
4502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867
8316527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631
5588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941
5116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518
857527248912279381830119491

without being able to measure the perimeter and the diameter to such incredible accuracy. How could that triumph of pure math happen?

It's known since a long long time that the ratio of a circle's perimeter/diameter is somewhat bigger than 3. Yet the most famous greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer Archimedes (287–212 BC) was the first to estimate ? rigorously.



Incidentally, since that number ? results as the perimeter/diameter ratio for ANY circle size, we can consider a circle of exactly diameter = 1 (in some units). Then the perimeter of that unit circle is predicted to be ? = 3.14159... and "all" we need to do is to calculate the perimeter of the unit circle to 500 digits... . How that?? . YOUR challenge not mine

Too bad that these days there are rarely any REAL challenges left, since most of you will just look the solution up in the Web...So let me better stop here. Yet, reading a bit about the respective methods in the Web also bears some educational value, I suppose.

Wish you fun...


cheers,
Fridger

[TERRIER]

JAQAR provides a free utility which generates xyzv trajectories for interplanetary flight.

JAQAR's SwingBy can be used to generate Hohmann tranfer orbits between any of the Solar System planets for any epoch you specify. The free version will find one intermediate flyby which improves fuel usage if you select that option. More options are available when a commercial license is purchased.

http://www.jaqarsoftware.com/swingby.html
[url updated 18Apr09 ...s]

It will generate xyzv data in its .tf files if you select the SwingBy menu Options/ "Write Trajectory Files of best solution". You'll have to edit them into Celestia's format and specify
OrbitFrame { EquatorJ2000 { Center "Sol" } }
in the SSC file.

It's been a while since I've posted on the forum, but this has raised my interest.

I'm wondering, (before I download it), if I could use the SwingBy Calculator to create a representation of the cruise trajectories for the Mariner 9 and Mariner 10 spacecraft models I made a while back ?

I've got a bit of info to hand covering Mariner 9's initial Mars orbit insertion, the Mariner 10 flybys, some info on the mass of each spacecraft, and dates and times of some key events. But other than knowing they were launched by the Atlas Centaur SLV-3C, and Atlas SLV-3D/Centaur D-1A launch vehicle's respectively, I've got very little accurate launch information.

[selden]

Maybe.

I've only used it to simulate the inter-planetary portions of a few trajectories. It does have input fields for a few different types of launch vehicles, but I've never tried them.

[Guckytos]

Okay,

since I just saw it in another post and it was not posted also here (tz tz tz) I have to do it.

On this site you can find some programs to calculate different orbits, habitats and other stuff. Useful for creators.

http://www.bumply.com/astro.html

Regards,

Guckytos

[duds26]

Here a link to tools for image visualization, includes stuff like spectrum vizualization:
http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~pdraper/gaia/gaia.html

[duds26]

A long list of programs: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/astroweb/software.html

[PlutonianEmpire]

Reviving this thread because I can and because I feel like it.

JAQAR provides a free utility which generates xyzv trajectories for interplanetary flight.

JAQAR's SwingBy can be used to generate Hohmann tranfer orbits between any of the Solar System planets for any epoch you specify. The free version will find one intermediate flyby which improves fuel usage if you select that option. More options are available when a commercial license is purchased.

http://www.jaqarsoftware.com/swingby.html
[url updated 18Apr09 ...s]

A long list of programs: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/astroweb/software.html

These links are dead now.

All of the following links I have in my bookmarks, all of which I've downloaded for off-line use.

http://www.transhuman.talktalk.net/iw/Geosync.htm
Designs individual planet, was updated a few months ago, and for some reason, the "minimum/typical/maximum" density portion used to have two digits beyond the decimal point, but was reduced to just one digit, which infuriated me. Glad I downloaded the two digit version before it happened.

http://www.bogan.ca/astro/stars/star_lum.html
Computes the bolometric magnitude of a star. In the exact same manner that Celestia 1.6.1 calculates temperature distances before it's removal for 1.7.0. Nonetheless, I find it useful, especially when used in conjunction with the next two links:

http://www.calctool.org/CALC/phys/astro ... _magnitude (Derives star luminosity from AbsMag and AppMag and distance)
http://web.archive.org/web/200910210740 ... eqstar.htm (Practically famous by now. Thus, self explanatory. )

http://stardestroyer.net/Resources/Calc ... meter.html
Another planet-maker.

http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/educators/ ... ulator.asp
Calculates the lifetime of a sun based on its mass.

http://orbitsimulator.com/formulas/
A slew of space calculators. The most useful ones, for me anyway, are the period, SMA, and hill sphere calculators.

http://www.astro.indiana.edu/~gsimonel/ ... ture1.html
Calculates the temperature of a world based on sun mass, orbit, albedo, and greenhouse effect.

Finally, there's this:
http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animat ... arlum.html
But I've yet to find a way to get satisfactory results from this regarding Celestia, but maybe others can? It's a simple Java box with two sliders for star properties, spectral type and radius.

With that out of the way, I have a question. Are there any utilities besides the old (and highly inaccurate) Cluster Generator from Rassilon that can produce stars for Celestia en masse? Basically, for galaxies, like Cham did with Mathematica for some of the galaxies out there?