Hello from the University of Piraeus in Greece

[paravantis]

Stumbling upon Orbiter 2010 was the closest thing to magic - so thought yours truly and my two kids, this past summer.

I am excited to be a new member of the community and I shall have you folks know that, as of this coming winter semester, I shall be using Orbiter 2010 to demonstrate space technology to the students of my "Geopolitics of Technology" class here at the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus (Greece), before we delve into the History of the Cold War and the race to the moon.

Exciting days ahead, thank you all for having me here!

 

[dgatsoulis]

Γεια σου πατριώτη!

Welcome to the forum!

 

[paravantis]

Many thanks Dimitri! Ευχαριστώ! So nice to find a fellow Greek here too!

I too saw your name and involvement in the Orbiter project and wanted to convey my best regards to you!

 

[francisdrake]

It is great you found Orbiter, like it and spread the knowledge to others as well!

I learned as much about spaceflight in the first half year of flying in Orbiter as I learned in all the years before. The documentation is also very informative, for those willing to go more into details. Last but not least: This forum here with its dedicated members, who are an immeasurable source of information and motivation

 

[paravantis]

Thank you francisdrake! You are so right! I learned as much about space flight in the last week (!) as I did in all my previous life!

The documentation & the various tutorials are immensely helpful. I found David Courtney's Absolute Beginner Guide particularly helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPu_SHPaJzs4e1NfhY8jxPGgk5S4duEql

Big thanks to all of you add-on developers!

 

[Codz]

Welcome to the forum! Orbiter is certainly an excellent tool to teach a variety of spaceflight related topics.

 

[Ripley]

Welcome to OF, paravantis! :thumbup:

 

[Donamy]

Welcome !!

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[boogabooga]

Hello.

Please tell us more about how you plan to use Orbiter for education.

 

[mjanicki]

Welcome! I'm so glad to hear of Orbiter being used in the classroom.!

-- Mike

 

[NextBigLeap]

Welcome to the forum! Orbiter is a wonderful program and i hope your students enjoy it as much as we do.

 

[Ripley]

About educational use, have a look at Artlav's Videnie add-on, on Orbit Hangar.
It only runs on vanilla Orbiter (no D3D9) but could prove priceless for your purpose.

 

[paravantis]

Here’s more on how I intend to use Orbiter in classes (@boogabooga and other friends who may be interested).

Although I am a Civil Engineer by basic degree (National Technical University of Athens) I have become an Environmental/Energy person (PhD & MSc from Northwestern University, Chicago) and I serve as a tenured Assistant Professor in the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus in Greece.

You may already (and correctly) wonder “What would International Relations [IR] students have to do with space technology” — let me explain.

In an elective "Geopolitics of Technology" class that I teach every winter semester, I usually have a devoted following of about 25 tech-minded IR students who want to know more on how technology plays an important role in IR and geopolitics. Last year I used a small number of computer games (freeware versions, demos or bought and installed in my computer) to illustrate certain aspects of IR history and theory to my students. Just to give you three examples, with Euro Truck Simulator, students became familiar with the experience of trans-European road networks and the importance and limitations of trade between European countries. With Sid Meier's Pirates, students “became” pirates of the Spanish Caribbean in the 16th, 17th and 18th century and experienced firsthand the “co-opetition” among the major colonial powers of the era: Spain, Holland, England and France. Finally, with Making History – The Calm and the Storm, students “became” World War II combatants and gained a more solid understanding of the role of transport and communications in International Relations by appreciating e.g. how logistical problems can change the course of a war (like the Operation Barbarossa of the Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union).

Well, this year I shall be using Orbiter to have them obtain a hands-on feeling of space technology so that I may then examine the Cold War and the race to the moon, an important technological influence to the (almost) five decades of “nuclear peace” that humanity enjoyed in the bipolar Western Democracy (USA) – Communist Block (USSR). Apropos, when we hit an altitude of 35 km (as we fly to orbit) I shall remind them that this is an important location for the ozone layer environmental problem!

Experience has taught me that when I set the stage, so to speak, with fun computer games/simulations and in-class activities, students then take the lead in educating themselves and all I have to do is stand by and help them when they get stuck.

Apologies for this long post but you got me going! Hope it was interesting.

It goes without saying that any suggestions and ideas would be very welcome!

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Well, take a look (if you haven't already) at AMSO. Which models the Saturn 5 rocket and the moon missions. http://www.acsoft.ch/AMSO/amso.html

For the earlier missions, there is a Project Mercury [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1878"]Project Mercury 5.0[/ame]
There is some additional things you'd need for it though.
Gemini [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=6326"]Project Gemini[/ame]

From the Soviet point of view [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5004"]Sovietic Lunar Program[/ame]
(I regret that I haven't taken a look at this one thought)

Really glad to see that the youth are taking an interest! It's really hard sometimes for people here (well, not here on the forum) to understand how space derived technology has driven our current lives (as they struggle to listen to you and check their smart phones at the same time).

 

[dgatsoulis]

There is also afronaught's [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=531"]Space Race Complete [/ame] and [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=526"]Space Race Mir ISS Missions[/ame].

341 scenarios spreading over 58 years, chronologically listing the development of the space program in various countries around the world. Beginning with the First U.S V2 rocket launches and developing through the Russian Sputnik, Vostok, Voskod, Soyuz, Progress, Proton and Buran missions, the US Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. Also included is a series of Unmanned Launches including The Thor, Atlas-Agena and Delta missions. I have also included the ESA'a Arianne 4 and 5 scenarios as well as China's manned space program. The scenarios also continue on through the Mir program and ending with the International Space station Missions with the last mission being the Progress re-supply of the ISS on 24 November 2004.

Not addons per se, but a great list of scenarios with instructions for the required addons to run them. It is a little bit old, (from 2004) but I'd be more than happy to help, if you want to try and run these in Orbiter 2010 P1.

For even more impressive visuals, we have the Orbiter 2014 beta, which uses level 18 (almost) global coverage of Earth and 3D terrain with collision detection.

The problem is that there are still some issues to iron out, so it's not a very backwards compatibility friendy Orbiter version yet.

 

[paravantis]

I have saved all your suggestions and links and thank you all very much!

Dimitri, on a visit to Piraeus sometime from October to December of this year, would you be interested in delivering a guest lecture to my Technology class? It usually runs on Tuesdays, 2 to 5 pm.

 

[boogabooga]

To teach the Cold War space race, I highly recommend the add-ons of igel and Thorton. Their add-ons are of extremely high quality, plus they are pretty well automated such that the user does not need to know or do very much except watch. These would be perfect for classroom demonstration, in my opinion. They even have a special interface so that you can view your flight in Google Earth. They also are a bit more up to date and mostly work fine in Orbiter2010.

Especially these-

The V-2:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2647"]V2 by igel[/ame]


An EXCELLENT simulation of Sputnik and the other first two satellites. Also simulates the first ICBM (same rocket used to launch Sputnik) complete with a targeting feature:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4419"]R-7 Early Missions[/ame]

The first humans in space:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5126"]Vostok[/ame]

The first lunar probes:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3761"]Vostok-Luna: Block E, Luna-1-2-3[/ame]

The Proton and Soyuz launch vehicles:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3209"]Proton Launch Vehicle v.2.2[/ame]
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4545"]Soyuz FG/U v1.2[/ame]


Then there is the Mir and ISS, which also includes the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft of the manned program. Though in my opinion these add-ons require more experience as rendezvous and docking skills are needed to take full advantage of them.
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3737"]International Space Station v.3.2[/ame]
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2536"]Mir Space Station v.1.3[/ame]
(BTW, Thorton's add-ons were used by no less than the ESA in P-R videos)

If you really get into the Soviet side, there are some interesting historical tid-bits from other developers as well:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3820"]Salyut 6[/ame]
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5160"]Soyuz 7K series[/ame]


From the U.S. side, there are some great add-ons as well by different authors.
AMSO has been mention. If you get as far as the Space Shuttle, check out anything for the "shuttle fleet" on simvation.com.

Here is a scripted Minuteman ICBM flight that in my opinion is well done and historically relevant:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3797"]Minuteman II ICBM - New version[/ame]

It even includes a silo, though you will need Vinka's spacecraft3, multistage2, and BrianJ's stage.dll.

 

[dgatsoulis]

I have saved all your suggestions and links and thank you all very much!

Dimitri, on a visit to Piraeus sometime from October to December of this year, would you be interested in delivering a guest lecture to my Technology class? It usually runs on Tuesdays, 2 to 5 pm.

I actually lived in Pireaus for 8 years (Peiraiki), before I closed my business and moved back to Sparta in 2011. Right now I am looking into permanently moving to Santorini, but this move depends on a lot of things coming together at the same time.

If I come to Athens, I'll certainly contact you and plan a visit at the university, but I hardly think that I'm qualified to lecture a class.