👀 Simulator for planetary systems in Visual Basic VB6.
✔ This is the VB version for Windows that I wrote about twenty years ago (in 2005 and 2006).
✔ Up to three large objects such as stars or planets can be set in motion to see the outcome. A spacecraft (the blip) can be programmed to do two thruster burns with predetermined parameters (times, strength, duration, angle to the direction of motion).
✔ To run, just download the exe file and click on it. Or compile the source if you prefer.
✔ Leave parameters in their default setting for a nice initial demo.
✔ Parameters can be saved in a file then reloaded at any run.
✔ Advantages: This is great for seeing how objects of different mass affect each other, and how orbits can be raised, lowered, or rotated. It can also nicely show how a slingshot manouvre is done.
🤷♂️ Limitations: it is a two dimentional model so the orbital planes can't be rotated out of the screen. The underlying physics model is crude so occasionally objects get scattered at wild angles if they collide or get too close.
🐱🏍 I will soon be rewriting this in Javascript to run in a browser. I am planning to allow any number of gravitating objects and to have the spacecraft fire thrusters in real time, upgrade the physics model, and allow objects to have an atmosphere so aerobraking can be simulated.
✨🏆🏆 Note: New version coming soon!
😁 Happy Buck Rodgering.
❤Licence: MIT