General Question This would be perfect:

[RSWingman]

A Module or MFD (or even an external utility) which imports data from the Sol.cfg, and is interactive. It would display all (or a selection of) your Planets and their orbits (possibly in logarithmic fashion), as well as your own position ("you are here"). And it would allow one to go forward and back in time, so as to facilitate planning of launch windows and slings.

I've searched high and low in Orbit Hangar to no avail. I've had various Stellarium-type programs, but they're always from an Earth-observer's point of view. Isn't there anything similar out there which uses a "top-down" view of the Solar System? I fear though, that if it doesn't work in concert with Orbiter in some way (like with Sol.cfg), that it won't necessarily be accurate for Orbiter purposes.

I'd love, while in Orbiter, (just as I can pull up a surface map), to be able to pull up a map of the System and see at a glance where I am and where everything else is. This would seem so fundamental. Why isn't it there? Is it planned for the next release? It always feels like Navigation is such a puzzle to be worked out, the complexity of which, interferes with productivity.

For the Sling-Geeks out there: How do you go about finding favorable alignments? Trial & error is such a pain.

 

[garyw]

There is this -> [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3149"]Orrery v1.2[/ame]

 

[RSWingman]

That'll work. Thanks.

Sure gets cluttered though, huh? Had to declutter my Sol. Wish it would eliminate lines which are outside the zoom range at least. Also noticed that it presumes ellipticals to be round. That's fine for now. Hope to see something in the form of an addition to the next version of Orbiter. When IS that coming out anyway?

 

[tblaxland]

A Module or MFD (or even an external utility) which imports data from the Sol.cfg, and is interactive. It would display all (or a selection of) your Planets and their orbits (possibly in logarithmic fashion), as well as your own position ("you are here").

:hesaid:

And it would allow one to go forward and back in time, so as to facilitate planning of launch windows and slings.

The best tool for that is a pork-chop plotter. Piper was working on one, see here: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=6889.

There is also one here: http://astrojava.com/btp/. It is more limited than Piper's, but still useful.

Another option is JPL's GMAT: http://gmat.gsfc.nasa.gov/. I've not used it before so I can't comment on its usefulness (I've got it sitting here on my machine, waiting for a rainy day ).

Orbiter uses VSOP87 for determining planet positions so you shouldn't have any trouble with accuracy for planets if you use "non-Orbiter" tools. Moons will be less accurate.

 

[2552]

IMFD's map program can do that.

 

[fost]

Trying to use Nasa GMAT, I have a problem, can anyone help me? (see image below)
translated from italian, more or less, the description is:
"cannot start application. libmx.dll not found. a new installation could solve the problem"
any suggestion? why that .dll isn't in the installation pack? or where can I find it?
thanks