Orbiter for Teachers

[rthorbur]

Disclaimer: I am very new to Orbiter.

I am a teacher at a middle school. As part of my duties I get to teach an elective class. I would dearly like to use Orbiter to teach the basics of spaceflight (e.g. Prograde, Retrograde, Eccentricity, how and when to burn to change Eccentricity/Orbit, etc.).

Has anyone tried this before and/or does any have suggestions on how I might do this?

Ultimately it would be cool if I could get the kids to plan a trip to the moon including:

• Orbital dynamics
• Resource planning

- How much water to bring
- How much food to bring
- How much Oxygen to bring

- What are our weight limitations (i.e. Max Payload capacity)

• What science do we plan on doing when we get there?
• A mock flight to the moon played back on Orbiter using our parameters.

Etc.

 

[tl8]

hmm, First off, I would go through the basics on paper.

Then I would show the kids how a launch happens with a prerecorded flight, show them the MFDs and what they mean.

I would strongly recommend the DGIV to start of with, it is by far the best beginners ship.

With your lunar assignment, everything will depend on how you are going to do it.

Are you going to use apollo or something more furturistic, or even a DG or XR series craft.

But before that, get them know how to get to orbit, and how to use the MFDs.

Good Luck

 

[Kaito]

yeah, the DGIV will probably be the best one to use for beginners. If they want to watch an orbit insertion, you could do Pro903spec42. It will auto-launch you at a heading of 42 degrees. You can change that to whatever you'd like. That auto-pilot will get you into orbit with an eccentricity of 0

Good luck!

 

[rthorbur]

hmm, First off, I would go through the basics on paper.

.....

I would strongly recommend the DGIV to start of with, it is by far the best beginners ship.

.....

Are you going to use apollo or something more furturistic, or even a DG or XR series craft.

But before that, get them know how to get to orbit, and how to use the MFDs.

Good Luck

Thanks. I had planned on using the DG as it seems to be the easiest to get up and running.

The first step, or course is to figure out how to do it myself.

 

[Andy44]

Actually, the first thing I would do is show them a playback. Get the interest level up.

 

[Agra Barecasco]

playback

Yeah, a playback, show them how the space shuttle (because it is a popular vessel) launch to orbit, and explain the physics on the way up,
then take control when it is in orbit, use "what if" methode (show a prograde, retrogade burn, etc). Explain it in simple way (rough).

I hope they'll interested enough to accept the theory when you write it in the board..

 

[RangerPL]

The stock DG is the best ship for beginners as there is minimum start-up hassle (no APU, no power management).
For your trip, I would recommend the DGIV, but if you really want to teach resource management, I recommend the XR1, as it is far more difficult to balance weight against fuel on the realistic settings.
​

 

[Donamy]

If you really want to do it right right, you need models, space suit, food and a speaker. My buddy (for a fee and airfare) would go to your school and do his "History of Rockets and Spaceflight" school program.

 

[RisingFury]

I would avoid the Shuttle if I was you. Cool as it is, it doesn't have much room for error.


I remember at least one teacher coming to the forums before you looking for advice to bring Orbiter to the classroom and at least one of the students trying to start up Orbiter hobby at school...

 

[RangerPL]

This is an excellent guide for orbiter.
It teaches:
-How to fix a bad orbit
-Hovering and thruster control
-Flight to the moon
-Orbital docking
-Flying to Mars using IMFD

http://www.aovi93.dsl.pipex.com/play_in_space.htm

I used this guide myself to learn. Makes a good orbiter "textbook".