Celestia Forums

I searched around a bit for a New Horizons add-on. Has anyone already done one?

I don't think so...

There doesnt appear to be any ephemeris for the spacecraft on the Horizons computer as yet.Jestr

We just have to sit and wait...

buggs_moran wrote:I searched around a bit for a New Horizons add-on. Has anyone already done one?

I`m suggesting somebody to send an e-mail and ask if they going
to make this ephemerids - ind if YES, then when it`ll be ready. And then
paste answer in this subject.

I can`t do that because... Well you see my english

jestr wrote:There doesnt appear to be any ephemeris for the spacecraft on the Horizons computer as yet.Jestr

IIRC, the trajectory depended of the timing of the launch (Jupiter Flyby/Assistance or direct cruise -for the latest windows for the launch, february). So there were many, many ephemeris, i guess, I remember reading many hypothesis of the arrival, betwen 2015 and 2020... the final corrections may be avaible soon, yes? Jeam.

They`re starting to generate ephemerids, but for now it is only for 2 days,
until 2006-JAN-24 23:58:54.8154 UT. Mayby soon they will put out more.

New Horizons add-on

http://www.orbithangar.com/advsearch.cf ... s&S=Search

Meshes/NewHorizons.msh (3D)
Textures/NH_ zinc02.dds
Textures/NH_dcs.dds
Textures/NH_FOIL.dds
Textures/NH_foil2.dds
Textures/NH_PLATE.dds
Textures/NH_rings.dds
Textures/NH_Tile0009.dds
Textures/NH_usflag.dds

There are more ephemerids on Horizons serwer now.

Well,according to Celestia,New Horizons will only get to within 9.5 million km from Pluto



I guess Pluto's orbit isnt too accurate.Cheers,Jestr

jestr,

Could you post your xyz file for new horizons?

OK,with a bit of luck you should be able to get it here

http://rapidshare.de/files/11775290/new_horizons.txt.html

It's a little confusing but you should scroll down and hit the free button,then enter a code.

I guess Pluto needs one also,Jestr

jestr wrote:OK,with a bit of luck you should be able to get it here

http://rapidshare.de/files/11775290/new_horizons.txt.html

It's a little confusing but you should scroll down and hit the free button,then enter a code.

Doesn`t work for me Could you send it to alexthefirst@interia.pl ?

With an xyz orbit for Pluto the result is a lot more realistic



If you want the xyz files for New Horizons or for Pluto you may be able to get them here

http://www.geocities.com/jestrjestr/images/new_horizons.txt

and here

http://www.geocities.com/jestrjestr/images/pluto.txt

I will upload the whole addon,including the model of the spacecraft as soon as I can but I'm waiting on clearance from the original creator of the New Horizons spacecraft,although I have modified it a good deal myself.Also another guy Emailed me last week to say he had made a nice model of it,and would I like to use it,but I'm still waiting for him to send it.Will let you know how it all turns out.Jestr

There's no VSOP87 orbit for Pluto, so the errors in its position are much greater than for the other eight planets of the solar system. As an alternative to using an XYZ file for Pluto, you can use the JPL DE406 ephemerides with Celestia. Download this file:

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~claurel/celest ... xp1800.406

Then copy it to Celestia's data directory as jpleph.dat. Finally, change the CustomOrbit of Pluto from:

CustomOrbit "pluto"

to:

CustomOrbit "pluto-jpl"

You'll then be able to observe New Horizon's close flyby of Pluto and Charon. This particular chunk of the full DE406 ephemeris gives very accurate positions for the planets and Moon for the years 1800-2100.

--Chris

Nice one Chris,it works a lot better,with New Horizons about 11,000 km from
Pluto.However,when I tried it on the Moon,it no longer orbits even a jpl Earth (I'm assuming you use the same expression
CustomOrbit "moon-jpl"
and the same for Earth?)
Cheers,Jestr

This is a web-based "Where is New Horizons now?" page:

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

and another page for making New Horizons' distance from Pluto as your signature on the forum:

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.gif

You can custom your own signature, like this:

[url=http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.signature/backcolor_is_%23111111_and_forecolor_is_white_and_x_is_10_and_y_is_20_and_w_is_720_and_h_is_28_and_fontsize_is_18_and_a_is_New%20Horizons_and_b_is_Sun.gif]http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.signature/
backcolor_is_%23060606_and_forecolor_is_white_and_
x_is_10_and_y_is_20_and_w_is_720_and_h_is_28_and_
fontsize_is_18_and_a_is_New%20Horizons_and_b_is_Sun.gif[/url]

Observer (param name="a") and target (param name="b") can be "Sun", "Earth", "Moon", "Mercury" to "Pluto", "Charon", "Io", "Europa", "Ganymede" and "Callisto" at this time.

There is now an official 'Where NH is Now' page on the New Horizons website:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspac ... 1&showsc=1

envoyer mail "New Horizons"

OK,I have just made catalogue entries on the Motherlode for my New Horizons addon.Many thanks to Joseph Firestine for contacting me with his very nice model of the spacecraft and to Ulrich (Adirondack) for moving the files to my creators directory on the Motherlode.I have made a DDS version available here

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/jestr/new_horizons_dds_v2_small.zip

and a jpeg version here

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/jestr/new_horizons_jpg_v2_small.zip

I have included an xyz orbit for the craft and also for Pluto (so for 2015 you get 2 Pluto's in Celestia).A more elegant solution is provided by Chris Laurel further up this thread,but if I included the jpleph.dat file in my addon,it would need moving the file to the data directory by hand (it wouldnt seem to work just putting it in the new_horizons data folder)and would add to the file sizes enormously.Hope you all like it ,Jestr

EDIT:changed the links to the new,corrected files,Jestr