Celestia Forums

brought this here so its easily found

All these times are correct as to the web site I got the info from.
apart from the launch time being 12:00 if no exact time was given.

UPDATE: These time frames only work with Celestia 1.2.5-Pre7

Apollo 10
Beginning "1969 5 18 12:49" # Launch
Ending "1969 5 26 12:55" # Return

Apollo 11
Beginning "1969 7 16 09:32" # Launch
Ending "1969 7 24 12:55" # Return

International Space Station
Beginning "1998 11 20 12:00" # Zarya module launched
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Hubble Space Telescope
Beginning "1990 4 25 12:00" # Launched
# Ending 2010 ? Still in Orbit

SkyLab
Beginning "1973 5 14 12:00" # Launch
Ending "1979 6 11 12:00" # Reentered Atmosphere

Space Station Mir
Beginning "1986 2 20 12:00" # Launched
Ending "2001 3 21 12:00" # Re-entered Atmosphere

Sputnik 1
Beginning "1957 10 4 12:00" # Launch
Ending "1958 1 4 12:00" # Re-entered Atmosphere

Mars Odyssey
Beginning "2001 10 24 12:00" # Arrive at mars
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Mars Global Surveyor
Beginning "1997 9 12 12:00" # Arrived at mars
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Galileo
Beginning "1989 10 18 22:23" # Launch
Ending "2003 9 21 10:44" # Crash into Jupiter

Voyager 1
Beginning "1977 9 5 12:56" #Launch
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Voyager 2
Beginning "1977 8 20 14:29" #Launch
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit


-** And Goes Earth Weather Satalites **-

Goes-8
Beginning "1994 4 13 12:00" #Launch
# Ending ? Still in Orbit

Goes-9
Beginning "1995 5 23 12:00" #Launch
# Ending ? Still in Orbit

Goes-10
Beginning "1997 4 25 12:00" #Launch
# Ending ? Still in Orbit

And here is an example of where to put these lines
within your .ssc file.

"Apollo11" "Sol/Earth/Moon"
{
Class "spacecraft"
Mesh "apollo11.3ds"
Radius 0.010

Beginning "1969 7 16 09:32" # Launch
Ending "1969 7 24 12:55" # Return

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 0.5
SemiMajorAxis 2000
Eccentricity 0.01
Inclination 5
}

Albedo 0.10
}

Darkmiss wrote:brought this here so its easily found

All these times are correct as to the web site I got the info from.
apart from the launch time being 12:00 if no exact time was given.

Apollo 10
Beginning "1969 5 18 12:49" # Launch
Ending "1969 5 26 12:55" # Return

Apollo 11
Beginning "1969 7 16 09:32" # Launch
Ending "1969 7 24 12:55" # Return

International Space Station
Beginning "1998 11 20 12:00" # Zarya module launched
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Hubble Space Telescope
Beginning "1990 4 25 12:00" # Launched
# Ending 2010 ? Still in Orbit

SkyLab
Beginning "1973 5 14 12:00" # Launch
Ending "1979 6 11 12:00" # Reentered Atmosphere

Space Station Mir
Beginning "1986 2 20 12:00" # Launched
Ending "2001 3 21 12:00" # Re-entered Atmosphere

Sputnik 1
Beginning "1957 10 4 12:00" # Launch
Ending "1958 1 4 12:00" # Re-entered Atmosphere

Mars Odyssey
Beginning "2001 10 24 12:00" # Arrive at mars
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Mars Global Surveyor
Beginning "1997 9 12 12:00" # Arrived at mars
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Galileo
Beginning "1989 10 18 22:23" # Launch
Ending "2003 9 21 10:44" # Crash into Jupiter

Voyager 1
Beginning "1977 9 5 12:56" #Launch
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit

Voyager 2
Beginning "1977 8 20 14:29" #Launch
# Ending ??? Still in Orbit


-** And Goes Earth Weather Satalites **-

Goes-8
Beginning "1994 4 13 12:00" #Launch
# Ending ? Still in Orbit

Goes-9
Beginning "1995 5 23 12:00" #Launch
# Ending ? Still in Orbit

Goes-10
Beginning "1997 4 25 12:00" #Launch
# Ending ? Still in Orbit

And here is an example of where to put these lines
within your .ssc file.

"Apollo11" "Sol/Earth/Moon"
{
Class "spacecraft"
Mesh "apollo11.3ds"
Radius 0.010

Beginning "1969 7 16 09:32" # Launch
Ending "1969 7 24 12:55" # Return

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 0.5
SemiMajorAxis 2000
Eccentricity 0.01
Inclination 5
}

Albedo 0.10
}

not function

example:
"Galileo" "Sol/Jupiter"
{
Class "spacecraft"
Mesh "galileo.3ds"
Radius 0.01
Beginning "1989 10 18 22:23" # Launch
Ending "2003 9 21 10:44" # Crash into Jupiter

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 64.4068
SemiMajorAxis 4632880
Eccentricity 0.831774
Inclination 4.213
AscendingNode 59.562
ArgOfPericenter 97.224
TrueAnomaly -66.619
}

Albedo 0.50
}

this is what i have writed into solaris.ssc, but galileo not crash, in the date november 2003 galile orbiting

"Mir" "Sol/Earth"
{
Class "spacecraft"
Mesh "mir.3ds"
Radius 0.015 # Mir is about 30 meters long
Beginning "1986 2 20 12:00" # Launched
Ending "2001 3 21 12:00" # Re-entered Atmosphere


# Assuming these elements to be constant isn't accurate . . .
# Celestia really needs to support better orbit models.
EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.06415338
SemiMajorAxis 6769
Eccentricity 0.0000831
Inclination 51.6461
AscendingNode 83.8459
ArgOfPericenter 296.4901
MeanAnomaly 63.6005
}

Albedo 0.10
}
mir continuing the orbit

It does.
They'er called "xyz" trajectories. That lets you define arbitrary course changes.

At the moment, however, it uses linear interpolation between the points, which means you have to provide a lot of samples around critical times. Presumably a better algorithm will be avaailable some day, which could drastically reduce the number of samples needed.

selden wrote:At the moment, however, it uses linear interpolation between the points, which means you have to provide a lot of samples around critical times. Presumably a better algorithm will be avaailable some day, which could drastically reduce the number of samples needed.

I have some routines for cubic spline interpolation written in Fortran. They could probably help most trajectories look smoother. Is there someone I could send them too to incorperate them into Celestia. I havent gotten around yet to compiling the source on my machine.

Celestia is written in C++. The source code is on SourceForge.

I'm sure Chris would be glad to include your algorithms, but it probably would speed their acceptance a lot if you could translate and debug them before sending them to him. You can find his e'mail address in his profile here on the forum.

Understood. I admittedly pretty rusty on C++, but I'll give it a shot and post them here. I know there are ways of calling fortran from C and vice-versa, but I'm not sure if theyre standard or just hacks.