Orbiter vs. Celestia

[ar81]

I know comparing Celestia and Orbiter is a bit like comparing apples and tomatoes.
But it seems interesting to me that kids love Orbiter, while adults love celestia.
I expected exactly the opposite.

[selden]

As a member of the "older" generation, I played with Orbiter a little, but decided that too many commands needed to be learned to get anywhere. In contrast, very few commands have to be typed to Celestia to go places. Life is short.

[buggs_moran]

Orbiter and Cesestia both have great aspects. If I want to experience orbital mechanics, inertia and "as real as it gets" spaceflight, there is no substitute for Orbiter (as far as I know) and it gets better all the time. Kids love to "feel" the ship, but they have to have patience as you don't do things quickly in a ship... I like to have my students try to dock in orbit or have contests to see who can get the most altitude in Rutan's Spaceship One. Personally, I like to try my hand using the Canadarm to grapple satellites (tough) or trying to land (tougher), or launching, finding and docking with the space station (toughest.) However these take time, and as Selden said, "life is short."

Celestia, as Selden said, is to go places, and it is great for that. I use Celestia for my students all the time. "Seeing" orbits, surfaces, distances, the moon being formed (I CAN'T WAIT!), galaxies, etc. is far more possible (and easy) in Celestia. The user addons make it infinitely more informative than Orbiter (especially fsgreg's addons). Personally and professionally I find Celestia more gratifying to that end.

[symaski62]

^^ http://orsa.sourceforge.net/atwork.html

ORSA@work

-> 3D et 2D
-> XYZ ^^
-> image 1k
-> CVS ^^

[ar81]

Remember I said I'd try to become a teacher?
Well, I got to do it.
I am in carge of some workshops that take place after normal lessons.

One of them is the most crazy one you could think of.
It's a workshop where I am teaching primary school kids about how to pilot using Orbiter.

Many people told me it was impossible. I already knew the principal and he knows I am a guy who doesn't know the meaning of the word impossible, so he allowed me to do so. I already had a digital music workshop and also an arts workshop before, where kids made perspective drawings in 4th grade, when it's supposed to be for high school.

So I pushed things a but more with this Orbiter workshop.

I already have had 2 lessons and they already got to do some basic atmospheric flying and then bring a craft to space. One of my best pilots is an 8 year old girl.

During the first lesson I had to solve some technical problems with some computers so I gave them Celestia as a distraction but they wanted to FLY! FLY! FLY! and they became so impatient that they didn't follow instructions and they crashed. But during second lesson they paid attention and got to fly the craft to space without significant incidents.

There I discovered that Celestia is more likely for adults than for kids. My father loved celestia more than Orbiter, just as the mother of a student of mine.

So I discovered there that Celestia has its audience among adults, not just kids.

I also made a demonstration of Orbiter to 3 to 5 year old kids (they didn't fly of course) and they loved it. I guess I am starting to create a madness for space at school.

One student told me I left her dreaming with each lesson.

Next lessons are even more challenging, but I will have to tell them it's just like a PS2. Will they let themselves to be defeated by a PS2? No, of course not.

Docking with ISS will be like 3D ice skating on a PS2. But its a PS2 called PC.

They already got to fly, so they lost their fear of handling a complex simulator. Now it's time for the real challenge... ISS docking. It might take place in a few weeks.

BTW, a humorous note. A student told me she doesn't have a driver license, she is not alowed to drive the car at home, but instead, she has her own spaecraft to fly to space...

[Michael Kilderry]

I'm a teenager and I've tried both programs, and I've decided that I like Celestia more, but Orbiter is good too.