Go Learn In Space (Educational Fun with Orbiter) by Bruce Irving bruceirvingmusic@pobox.com http://flyingsinger.blogspot.com December 15, 2005 Picture from Orbiter: International Space Station above the Northeastern United States
Contents What is Orbiter? What does Orbiter offer? (a visual tour with pictures from Orbiter 2005) How it all works (Orbiter demo) Conclusions For teachers: Demo notes and educational possibilities
What is Orbiter? Orbiter is a free space flight simulator, a game-like program with 3D graphics that makes you a virtual astronaut in the cockpit of a simulated spacecraft Unlike most space games for PC s or game consoles, Orbiter is based on real science, so spacecraft behave the way they really do in space It s fun to learn to change your orbit, launch into orbit from Earth, land on the Moon, dock with a space station, and much more
What does Orbiter offer? (A Visual Tour) Note: Several of the following pictures include optional add-on features that are not part of the basic Orbiter installation, but are available as free downloads for installation in Orbiter
The beauty of the Home Planet
and the vastness of space.
The mystique of the Moon
and the magic of Mars. (Proposed Mars Direct habitation module approaching Mars)
The been there, done that (Lunar Module in 1969, from NASSP/Apollo add-on for Orbiter)
the old hat (Deploying the Hubble Space Telescope with the Shuttle robot arm )
and the next big thing. (CEV - proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle docked at ISS)
New places to fly (in Mars orbit, 54 km from Phobos, one of Mars two moons)
and new places to drive. (Rover-driver s view at Vallis Dao, a valley on Mars)
Things to learn
and things to burn (sorry).
The Serene
and the Serenity.
And a lot of other cool stuff! (A hypothetical space elevator on a future terra-formed Green Mars )
How it all works (Live Orbiter demo, if available)
Fixing Up a Bad Orbit If someone is available who can run Orbiter, they can show you a brief (15-20 minute) demonstration of how it all works The demo is based on the steps shown in chapter 2 ( Smack! ) of Go Play In Space (free tutorial e-book for Orbiter) Two Earth orbiting spacecraft have just docked nose to nose, but the low point of their orbit is too low To fix up the orbit requires a few steps: Kill their axial rotation, undock, point both craft in the orbital direction, wait for apoapsis (high point of orbit), and fire main engines of each spacecraft to raise the low point to a safe 200 km or so above the surface (and make the orbit almost circular) Orbiter lets you switch between different spacecraft and speed up or slow down time, so slow motion can be used to give enough time to do these steps for both spacecraft The following few slides (figures from the book) help to illustrate key points of the demo
Smack! (Docked and Rotating)
Orbit Problem for Smack!
Orbit Terminology
Thrusters Rotation vs. Translation
THE END
For Teachers: Demo Notes and Educational Ideas
Orbiter Overview Orbiter is a free real-time space flight simulation for Windows PCs, developed by Dr. Martin Schweiger* as an educational and recreational application for orbital mechanics simulation. Includes modelling of atmospheric flight (launch and re-entry), sub-orbital, orbital and interplanetary missions (rendezvous, docking, transfer, slingshot, etc.) Based on Newtonian mechanics, rigid body model of rotation, basic (static) atmospheric flight model. Planet positions from public perturbation solutions. Time integration of state vectors or osculating elements. Written in C++, using DirectX for 3-D rendering. Public programming interface for development of external module plugins (includes COM interface and Software Development Kit). With an increasingly versatile API, development focus is beginning to shift from the Orbiter core to 3 rd party add-ons. And oh yes * University College London - thanks to Dr. Schweiger for this slide (and for Orbiter!)
Orbiter Demo Notes If you don t have an Orbiter user available to give a demonstration, it should take about 2 hours to read chapters 1 and 2 of Go Play In Space (free tutorial e-book for Orbiter, see Resources slide at the end), download and install Orbiter, and practice the detailed steps given in chapter 2 Note that you don t need a joystick to use Orbiter most maneuvers use the keypad of a standard PC keyboard Summary of the situation and steps: Two Earth orbiting spacecraft have just docked, but the low point of their orbit is too low Stop their axial rotation, undock, orient both craft in the prograde direction, wait for apoapsis (high point of orbit), fire main engines of each spacecraft to raise the low point above 200 km from the surface This demo is visually interesting, well documented, pretty easy to explain, and takes only 15-20 minutes The slides shown earlier (figures from the book) help to illustrate key points of the demo
Tips for the Demo The Launchpad is the dialog box where you set Orbiter parameters and choose and launch scenarios The Smack! scenario is in the Delta-Glider folder on the Scenario tab of the Launchpad Most digital projectors handle 1024 x 768*, so set this full screen resolution (and 32 bit color if possible) on the Video tab of the Launchpad dialog box Use R and T to slow down and speed up time, and Control-P to pause Use F1 to switch between internal and external views (updown arrows to slide the control panel down-up), use F3 to display a list of spacecraft for switching ships It s not essential to slow down time to allow doing everything for the two spacecraft at nearly the same time as the book suggests (it just looks cool to see them moving close together in synch ), so if you find it easier to do or explain, just stay at normal time, boost one spacecraft to the higher orbit, then do the other one separately (or just skip it) * 800x600 works too, but requires arrow-key scrolling to see all the instrument panel buttons
Educational Ideas: General Notes Orbiter is very deep with many possible things to learn, but it can be used for simpler (but still cool and instructive) things without a long learning curve the first 34 pages of Go Play In Space provide a lot of fascinating and fun capability with detailed step by step scripts) Grade levels for Orbiter Orbiter is a fairly complex real-time simulator, so its best use will depend on grade level Up to grade 6, it is probably best as a teacher s dynamic audio-visual demo tool to show general things like how rockets work, what orbits are, what the planets look like, and how they move From grade 7, most students can probably learn to operate Orbiter and do simple or complex experiments with it High school and college students can use it as a virtual lab for physics and flight experiments (both space and atmospheric flight)
Science Educational Ideas: Orbiter Connects With Physics: Motion, relative motion, acceleration, forces, rotation, translation, gravitation, orbits, orbital mechanics Astronomy: Planets, moons, planetary motion (planets both rotate and orbit the Sun, and most have one or more orbiting moons), atmospheres and their effects, sunrise/sunset, eclipses Technology Spacecraft, rockets, thrusters, orbital maneuvers, atmospheric flight, space stations, launch/takeoff, reentry/landing, rendezvous/dock, deploy satellites Flight instruments, properties of orbits, airspeed vs. ground speed vs. orbital speed, navigation, planning of interplanetary flights
Educational Ideas: And also Geography and Earth Sciences (view the Earth and other planets from space, identification of surface features of Earth, Moon, Mars surface and sky object labels can be selectively turned on or off) History of technology (rocketry from Robert Goddard to the Space Shuttle, piloted and unmanned space probes) Investigation of proposed future spacecraft and missions, and future/alternate propulsion systems (aircraft-launched spacecraft, ion engines, solar sails, electromagnetic mass drivers, space planes, SSTO [single stage to orbit], recoverable boosters, space elevators, etc.*) Add-on development (Orbiter users can develop spacecraft, space stations, surface bases, and planetary surfaces this involves 3D modeling, graphic arts, and programming for those who want these challenges, though most will just make use of the many available spacecraft, etc.). * Add-ons for most of these examples already exist
Educational Ideas: Uses of Orbiter Interactive and dynamic space flight and astronomy demo tool for teachers Virtual physics and space flight lab for students of general science and physics Space exploration and flight technology virtual laboratory for advanced students and space hobbyists (and professionals) Create experiments and measure results Use it to generate (static or dynamic) graphics for projects involving the Solar System Simulate actual space missions to explain and understand them better Use it for science fair projects involving space and/or atmospheric flight
Educational Ideas: Some Advantages of Orbiter Astronaut s first person perspective and 3D graphics encourage student interest You are there sensation of being in the cockpit and controlling the spacecraft Sense of accomplishment when you achieve orbit, land on Moon, dock with ISS, or reach Mars Science learning is implicit and intuitive experiment with conditions, launch methods, trajectories, etc. and quickly see the results Dynamic visualization accelerate time up to 100,000x to visualize the rotation (including cloud movement) and orbital motion of planets, moons, and spacecraft Sound effects and even music (MP3 player included with Orbiter Sound 3.0, free add-on) No weapons or violence
Educational Ideas: Conclusions Orbiter is a space flight simulator with accurate physics, beautiful 3D graphics, and a first-person, astronaut s perspective Basic capabilities and a wide-range of community supported add-ons make Orbiter a versatile tool for accurately simulating many aspects of space flight Educational applications of Orbiter include demos and student lab activities to enrich classes in physics, astronomy, technology, geography, and more. Orbiter is completely free!
Resources (All Free) Orbiter main web site (many links): www.orbitersim.com Introductory tutorial (Go Play In Space): www.orbiter.migman.com or www.aovi93.dsl.pipex.com/play_in_space.htm Main Orbiter add-on site: www.orbithangar.com Orbiter Discussion Forum: http://orbit.m6.net/v2/boardtalk.asp Great general space flight introduction (JPL s Basics of Space Flight, interactive web site): http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/