Satellites

Overview

This OXP adds satellites to the main planet, plus any secondary planets that may be available through Additional Planets.

Ideas with a revolutionary potential sometimes remain underestimated or just unnoticed!

This is the case for the Satellites OXP (author – Rorschachhamster). Seemingly just a nice exercise in coding and just one more OXP in the Ambience category.

But, it is a jolly hard task to simulate true orbital dynamics in Oolite:

In the real world, the calculation of orbital dynamics is based on the integration of acceleration vectors and on the energy conservation law. If you have no acceleration produced by a propulsion engine, your total energy (sum of kinetic and potential energy) would have a constant value. So on an elliptic orbit you’ll trade velocity for altitude and vice versa.

In Oolite we have no gravity nor energy. Acceleration is limited to propulsion acceleration/deceleration parameter thrust and this is not a vector value – it is just the rate of change of ship speed. So we need some trick to simulate true orbital dynamics – calculating the ship's position for the next frame and placing the ship directly into it.

Unfortunately JavaScript is not a suitable instrument for smooth dynamic simulations! It generates only 4 fps, so you’ll see the jerky sequence of frames instead of a decent illusion of smooth movement.

Bad idea. Forget it.

Satellites OXP uses a more elegant approach, based on AI behavior. It generates a realistically looking pattern of circular movement around a planet without sophisticated mathematics.

Source: Stranger's introduction to his Orbital Stations OXP

Satellite Types

There are 4 different types of satellite that can be added to a system.

Surveillance Satellites

These satellites are designed to map and scan planetary regions, down to a very fine detail level.

COM and COMLR Satellites

These satellites aid and facilitate intra- and inter-planetary communications.

Satellite Telescope

These satellites are designed to scan deep space for anomalies (like Thargoid invasion craft or rogue comets and asteroids).

Download

Download Satellites.oxz v1.10 (downloaded 1773 times).

License

This OXP is released under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike 3.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/