Orbiter
Orbiter is a freeware space flight simulator written by Martin Schweiger, Ph. D., of the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering at University College London.
The current version is Orbiter 2006 Patch 1.
Structure
Orbiter consists of a mix of configuration files, help files, meshes, textures and modules which get integrated by the main executable Orbiter.exe. This very flexible architecture makes it possible to easily modify orbiter and extend its capabilities.
The default solar system
The default solar system includes all known planets (except the dwarf planets) and the major moons. Most planets are equipped with a ephemeris module, which calculate the position of the celestial bodies at a very high accuracy, making it possible to simulate historic space missions at a very accuracy.
Spread over the inner solar system are some spaceports, which allow players to refuel their spacecrafts:
- Kennedy Space Center
- Habana close to Habana, Cuba
- Brighton Beach on Moon
- Olympus on Mars
The included spacecrafts
- Deltaglider
- Shuttle-A
- Shuttle Atlantis
- Shuttle PB
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Long Duration Exposition Facility
- Carina
- Internation Space Station
- Mir
Mir got placed into an alternative orbit (and was not deorbited) making it a possible start for interplanetary missions.