Spacecraft for Celestia: Thread 2

[DaveBowman2001]

The International Space Station (as of 2023-Nov-6)

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest spacecraft currently in LEO. It is a multinational collaborative project between five space agencies across the world, which began construction in 1998. As of November 2023, it hosted 70 long-duration Expedition crews since 2000, holding the record for the longest continuous human habitation in space

WHAT'S NEW?
- Replaces entirely the March 2023 update of this addon
- SSCs were rewritten to allow itself to be compatible with the upcoming Axiom Space Station addon
- Corrected dates for the deployment of the third set of iROSA arrays that were delivered during SpaceX CRS-28. Also added are the fourth and fifth set of iROSA arrays that are scheduled for installation by 2025
- Nauka outfitting equipment deployment are now set on their correct dates in May 2023. The orientation of the radiator is also flipped 180 degrees to reflect what is seen in real life

IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Delete all previous installations of this addon as those contain obsolete files that are no longer supported by this version
- The Shuttle missions require the STS-2022 addon installed (to be replaced with a future updated version coming soon)

REQUIRED ADD-ONS:

• Axiom Space Station
• Space Shuttle

ADDITIONAL (OPTIONAL) ADD-ONS:
The following addons below depict all the visiting spacecraft to and from the ISS since 2000. They will be constantly updated on each new flight to the station

• Automated Transfer Vehicle
• Boeing Starliner
• Cygnus
• Dream Chaser
• HTV and HTV-X
• Progress: 1989-Present
• Soyuz: 1986-Present
• SpaceX Dragon 1
• SpaceX Dragon 2

International Space Station.zip

(60.92 MiB) Downloaded 201 times

Spoiler

HAPPY 23RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE LONGEST CONTINUOUS HABITATION OF SPACE ABOARD THE ISS, AND 25TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE EXISTENCE OF THE STATION ITSELF!!

[DaveBowman2001]

The Axiom Space Station, also known as the Axiom Orbital Segment, are a number of planned future components of the International Space Station starting late 2025. Three modules will be initially attached on the front berthing port of the Harmony module, then it will eventually be separated shortly before the ISS is decommissioned sometime before 2031, thus becoming a new independent space station in its own right. Crew and cargo are expected to arrive and depart via SpaceX Dragon 2 capsules

NOTES:
- Requires the International Space Station add-on installed first for full compatibility. Take note that you must NOT delete the default ISS from the "extras-standard" folder or this addon will not work at all
- The space station features full assembly sequences, though all dates set are semifictional, especially the post-ISS phases.
- Overall configuration of the AxS are based on the following images:

• Phase 1: ISS-dependent Stage
• Phase 2: Departure Stage
• Phase 3: Transition Phase
• Phase 4: Later Expansion

Axiom Space Station.zip

(1.55 MiB) Downloaded 172 times

[DaveBowman2001]

Tiangong 1 and Shenzhou 9

Tiangong 1 and 2 were the first space stations operated by China. Like the Salyut series before Mir, they served as testbeds for the modular space station simply named Tiangong, which was launched in 2021. Three Shenzhou missions were launched to Tiangong 1, while one Shenzhou mission was conducted on Tiangong 2 for 33 days. The two stations operated from 2011 to 2019

Tiangong 2 and Tianzhou 1

NOTES:
- Replaces its SSC-only version from March 2022
- New CMOD model for its main body to differentiate it from the later Tianzhou spacecraft. Original models, including solar arrays, by Sirius_Alpha
- For visiting missions, download the Shenzhou 8 to 18 and Tianzhou 1 to 6 add-ons

Tiangong 1 and 2.zip

(1.17 MiB) Downloaded 185 times

[DaveBowman2001]

This has been stalled for over a year now, but I'm attempting to reconstruct Tianwen-1's orbital phase around Mars, which is currently missing on toutatis's add-on due to lack of trajectory data from JPL HORIZONS after February 10, 2021.

So far, its extended XYZV trajectory runs from February 10 to April 19. I intend to make it last until 2022-Jan-1, where at this point is settled around its final science orbit (thus we can simply make it purely SSC-based afterwards). These are based on Daniel Estévez's GMAT scripts for the mission, while filling in data gaps using Orbiter 2016.

[EarthMoon]

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest spacecraft currently in LEO. It is a multinational collaborative project between five space agencies across the world, which began construction in 1998. As of November 2023, it hosted 70 long-duration Expedition crews since 2000, holding the record for the longest continuous human habitation in space

I think there is a problem in the .ssc file in the "(International Space Station)" folder: it defines the ISS to have a radius of 0.0012 km (1.2 m). When I select the ISS and press "G", it always leads me very close to Zarya. I think the radius should be something like 50 m (0.05 km). This won't affect clicking modules as the ISS has no mesh and thus no click region (at least how far I could find out).

[DaveBowman2001]

That is intentional as retaining its default radius (~56 m) would result into being unable to click any of the visiting spacecraft nor even the modules. This is because the ISS object has now become an invisible clickable empty sphere, and applying "Clickable false" to it wouldn't help either. It only acts as a ReferencePoint

This is also the method used for all other modular space station addons like the AxS, Lunar Gateway, ROSS, Tiangong and linuxman's ISS-2009 addon....except Mir since it doesn't need to due to its core module having the same name

[EarthMoon]

This is a small update to the THEMIS addon posted over a year ago.

Fixes:
The rotational period has been set from 0.025 hours to 0.001041667 hours. They spin 16x per minute for stabilization (3.75 seconds for each spin). (Source [German website, see second line in the focussed paragraph: 16/min spinstabilisiert])
The BodyFrame has been set to EclipticJ2000, so their rotational inclination is 0°
Their NSSDC IDs (2007-004A to 2007-004E) have been added
The primary names of the satellites are now all THEMIS-... (two, THEMIS-B and THEMIS-C had the ARTEMIS-P1 and ARTEMIS-P2 names as their primary name before which are now their secondary names), the names are now in this order:
THEMIS-#, (ARTEMIS-P# if applicable,) Explorer-##, 2007-004#


One of the five THEMIS satellites in orbit around the Earth:

Two of the five THEMIS satellites have been sent to a lunar orbit in 2011, and they got new names: ARTEMIS-P1 and ARTEMIS-P2 (neither to be confused with NASA's Artemis program to send people to the moon nor with ESA's Artemis satellite)

[DaveBowman2001]

Toutatis's Tianwen-1 model is now split into two....the orbiter and the lander shell:

After the new orbital trajectories were finished, I'll be working on a model for Zhurong

[Art Blos]

My appeal personally to DaveBowman2001.

We all really appreciate how much work you put into improving Celestia. But now there are so many new addons, old and new versions, that the search for something interesting turns into (sorry) a walk through a garbage dump.

Some kind of systematization is required. Previously there were attempts to implement something similar in the form of an Excel file, but this is not the most successful option.

I suggest to move the folders containing all your addons only the latest versions (with indicating release date) to a separate cloud or server. One spacecraft - one folder (or group of related spacecraft). Arrange folders alphabetically. And here publish only announcements.

[EarthMoon]

I will also soon migrate my addons to an extra website (things get lost so easily on this huge website, I don't even know anymore where I uploaded addons and how many I uploaded, after a few Celestia addon-cleanups (because Celestia started to crash on start-up due to too many addons) I lost the overview about many addons))

Maybe I will also upload lots of other addons made by others, so there is a huge website where you can find specific addons quickly (sorted by categories and sub-categories) without needing to browse 100+ topics with 10+ pages each (something like a new Motherlode). There are many websites (Motherlode, celestia.mobi, this forum, etc.) where addons are scattered through so one central website with all the addons sounds useful, right? Yes. I will of course credit the creator(s) and write a short description (usually the informative text in the addon post or the addon description on the celestia.mobi site). This forum could then be for announcements and I will provide the downloads, screenshots etc. on the website.

(Currently just a concept, tell me your ideas to this)

[DaveBowman2001]

I suggest to move the folders containing all your addons only the latest versions (with indicating release date) to a separate cloud or server. One spacecraft - one folder (or group of related spacecraft). Arrange folders alphabetically. And here publish only announcements.

@Art Blos, I understand. The format in the Forums is quite admittedly a bit messy, and most of the time I followed what toutatis had done on the original Spacecrafts thread in the last five years. As for updates, I'm now deleting my older versions as per request by onetwothree many months ago


That being said, the celestia.mobi's Spacecrafts category should have all the uploaded spacecraft addons on this Forum and the Motherlode by all authors involved, with only the latest versions posted

[DaveBowman2001]

Pioneer 12 in orbit around Venus. Click to view GIF animation

Also known as the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, it was a NASA mission that studied the atmosphere and surface of Venus from 1978 to 1992. Together with the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (Pioneer 13), they were the last spacecraft launched as part of the NASA/Ames Pioneer program

Original add-on by toutatis. I've splitted the CMOD model into two parts (HGA and body) so that the probe now has Earth-tracking capability while simultaneously retaining its spin-stabilization

Pioneer 12.zip

(5.59 MiB) Downloaded 191 times

[gironde]

Starlink de SpaceX : launches 114 à 122

Starlink 114-122.zip

(79.08 KiB) Downloaded 250 times

[SpaceExplorer]

This addon adds a xyzv trajectory of the Chang'e 5-T1 booster, more precisely the third stage of the Long March 3C that launched the Chang'e 5-T1 experimental lunar mission in 2014.

Initially and erroneously identified to be the second stage of the F9 that launched the DSCOVR satellite, this object collided with the Moon on March 4, 2022, in the vicinity of the Hertzsprung crater. The violent impact left a double crater, which was later photographed by LRO and Chandrayaan-2.

Trajectory data is from HORIZONS. The model is generic and from EarthMoon. I couldn't find precise information about stage rotation.

[EarthMoon]

This addon adds the Centaur stage left over from the launch of the MSL/Curiosity mission.

The centaur model is the same as the model from the Chang'e 5-T1 booster (see above), I made the model a few years ago.

[EarthMoon]

This is a FULL one-file xyzv trajectory for the ISS, from 1998-11-19 18:51:03.183 TDB until 2023-12-23 08:19:40.7125 TDB, with a time step of 6 or 7 minutes. Because of lags, the the object with path Sol/Earth/ISS and its orbit are invisible, but objects "orbiting" this object are visible, e.g. modules and other stuff added by this really awesome ISS addon. I had to download 25 one-year xyzv files (only the one from November 2022- December 2023 was a bit longer so I had to use time step of 7 mins here because of this useless Horizons limitation: "90024 lines max", in all other it's 6 mins), then edit all the files and merge them with a tiny .py script.

WARNING: Setting the ISS' visibility to true may lead Celestia or even your entire system to a crash. I am not responsible for any physical or digital damage caused by this addon! Use at your own risk.

[DaveBowman2001]

This addon adds the Centaur stage left over from the launch of the MSL/Curiosity mission.

An actual model for MSL's Centaur stage is already included on this addon: Centaur-III(5) alongside 39 other missions, including from Lucy, Juno, MRO, etc.
The model itself was created by toutatis in 2020, though I removed the goldfoil parts since most launched Centaurs from Atlas V don't have them

One additional side note, 2020 SO is a first-generation design of the Centaur, so it is separated alongside 20 other missions on the Centaur-D addon

As for Chang'e 5-T1's booster, I'll be making a model for it as promised to SpaceExplorer on Discord once I got free time again

Added after 2 minutes 38 seconds:

WARNING: Setting the ISS' visibility to true may lead Celestia or even your entire system to a crash. I am not responsible for any phsiycal or digital damage caused by this addon! Use at your own risk.

Yeah, this is the main reason why I did not want to add the actual orbits of the ISS because the results are too large for Celestia to handle. I experimented with this before but never published it (mine has 10-minute time steps) because it continues to crash once I approach it about less than 25 km from the station itself

[gironde]

Starlink de SpaceX : launches 123 to 126

Starlink 123-124-125-126.zip

(67.92 KiB) Downloaded 226 times

[DaveBowman2001]

Starlink shell as of 2023-Dec-8. Click to view GIF animation

Here's a recap of all 126 Starlink launches so far collected in one ZIP file.
This was last updated on 2023-Dec-8. SSC files originally made by gironde

DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION HERE, 2024-06-15

[DaveBowman2001]

GlobalStar is a series of satellites in medium Earth orbit that provide mobile communications around the globe, similar to Iridium. Between 1998 and 2022, a total of 97 satellites were flown in 21 launches. As of 2023, around 30 of them (mostly from the second generation) are still operational to this day

The active (green) and derelict (red) satellites of the GlobalStar fleet

NOTES:
- Original add-on by Thomas Guilpain.
- Data for the first 24 GlobalStar-2 satellites are originally published by gironde.
- Added normal maps to the satellite's CMOD model
- Added the most recent satellite as part of the GlobalStar fleet (M087), which was launched on 2022-Jun-19
- Decommissioned satellites now have their names hidden starting on their date of last contact

GlobalStar.zip

(803.8 KiB) Downloaded 148 times