Orbiter

Martin Schweiger, Ph.D., the developer of Orbiter

Orbiter (Orbiter Space Flight Simulator) is a freeware space flight simulator created by Martin Schweiger, Ph. D., of the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering at University College London. The most current stable version is Orbiter 2016.

Structure

Orbiter is a physics simulator which uses Newtonian physics to simulate the behaviour of spacecraft & other objects within our solar system. While somewhat vulnerable to crashes caused by add-ons or extreme simulation demands, Orbiter is generally quite stable when used properly. Orbiters file structure consists of configuration files, help files, meshes, textures and modules which are integrated by the main executable Orbiter.exe. This very flexible architecture makes addon development for Orbiter relatively easy.

System Requirements

The standard ORBITER distribution requires the following minimum hardware features:

• 600 MHz PC or better (Pentium, Athlon, etc.)
• 256 MB RAM or more
• Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP
• DirectX 7.0 or higher
• DirectX compatible 3D graphics accelerator card with at least 16MB of video RAM (32MB or more recommended) and DXT texture compression support
• Approximately 100MB of free disk space for the minimum installation (additional high-resolution textures and add-ons will require more space).
• DirectX compatible joystick (optional)

Installing high-resolution texture packs or add-ons may have an impact on performance and could require significantly higher computing specs.

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 calculates the position of the celestial bodies to very high accuracy, making it possible to simulate historic space missions by using nearly the same manoeuvres as in reality.

Also included in the basic Orbiter distribution are several spaceports, where players can refuel their spacecraft:

• Kennedy Space Center
• Habana located close to Habana, Cuba
• Brighton Beach located on the Moon near side
• Olympus spaceport located on Mars

For a complete list of the bases included with the Orbiter distribution, see the Surface bases article.

Standard Spacecraft

• Dragonfly
• Luna Wheel Station
• Delta-glider
• Shuttle-A
• Space Shuttle Atlantis
• Shuttle PB
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Long Duration Exposition Facility
• Carina
• International Space Station
• Mir

In spite of its destruction in reality, Mir is placed in an alternative orbit making it a possible start for interplanetary missions.

Versions

Not long after Martin made Orbiter open source, he uploaded all the versions he still had to the Resources section of Orbiter-forum.

Orbiter 2001

Author's Comments:
The earliest copy of Orbiter I have on record, from 2001.

Project home: Orbiter 2001 Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2001 (orbiter010503) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2002

Author's Comments:
Orbiter's 2002 release. Both files are needed for a working copy.

Project home: Orbiter 2002 Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2002 (orbiter020419) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2002-P1, with subsequent patches

Author's Comments:
Orbiter's second release in 2002, which then included three subsequent revisions as patches to the base 021202 install.

These are cumulative, which means if you want 030303 you need to unpack the 021202 base, then the 021206 patch, the 021217 patch, and then finally the 030303 patch, to get a working install.

You'll need both _base and _tex for a working 021202 base install.

Project home: Orbiter 2002P1, 6 files Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2002P1 (orbiter021202, orbiter021206, orbiter021217, orbiter030303_patch.zip) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2003-P1

Author's Comments:
The first revision of Orbiter from 2003. Not originally called 2003-P1 (as far as I know) but adjusted to fit the more recent format.

You need _base and _tex for a working Orbiter install. _sdk is optional, for developing addons against.

Project home: Orbiter 2003P1, 1 file Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2003P1 (orbiter031105) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2003-P2

Author's Comments:
The second revision of Orbiter from 2003. While this wasn't called 2003-P1 at the time as far as I can tell, that's what Orbiter later started using, so I've kept that format here as we go backwards in time.

You need _base and _tex for a working Orbiter install. The _sdk is optional.

Project home: Orbiter 2003P2, 3 files Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2003P2 (orbiter031217) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2005

Author's Comments:
Orbiter 2005 - both the initial release and the later patch for a revision.

The 050216 patch needs to be applied over the base 050116 install, it won't make a standalone Orbiter install by itself.

Project home: Orbiter 2005, with P1 patch files(5 files) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2005P1 (orbiter050116, orbiter050216) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2006

Comments:
Author's Orbiter 2006 base package.

Project home: Orbiter 2006(1 file) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2006 (orbiter060504) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2006-P1

Author's Comments:
Orbiter 2016-P1, base and separate SDK package.

Only the base is needed for the core Orbiter application.

Project home: Orbiter 2006-P1(2 files) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2006P1 (orbiter060929) Compatibility:

2006 & 2006-P1 Hi-Res Textures

Author's Comments:
High-Res texture packs for 2006

Project home: 2006 & 2006-P1 Hi-Res Textures(18 files) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: Hi-Res Textures (PlanetHires060504.zip, Mars060504)l10.zip, Mars060922_L9.zip, Mars060504_L8.zip, Mars060504_L10_Olympus.zip, Jupiter060504_L7.zip, Io060504_L7.zip, Iapetus060504_L7.zip, Earth060504_L10.zip, Enceladus060504_L8.zip, Enceladus060504_L7.zip, Dragonfly060504_htex.zip, Dione060504_L7.zip, Deimos060504_Hi.zip, Titan060504_L7.zip, Tethys060504_L7.zip, Rhea060504_L7.zip, Phobos060504_Hi.zip) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2010

Author's Comments:
Orbiter 2010, in ZIP and MSI format - you only need one of these files.

Project home: Orbiter 2010(2 files) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2010 (orbiter100606.msi, orbiter100606.zip) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2010-P1

Author's Comments:
Orbiter 2010-P1, both MSI and ZIP versions. You only need one of these files!

Project home: Orbiter 2010-P1(1 files) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2010P1 (orbiter100830.zip) Compatibility:

Orbiter 2016

Author's Comments:
The official release of Orbiter 2016 - both ZIP and MSI versions, along with the optional high-resolution packs.

You can find more information about these files from http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html - the content here is just to protect against bit-rot in those links.

Project home: Orbiter 2016-torrent files(9 files) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2016 (Orbiter2016.zip.torrent, Orbiter2016.exe.torrent, Orbiter2016Corezip.torrent, Orbiter2016CoreMSI.torrent, Orbiter2016HiResMoon.torrent, Orbiter2016HiResBodies.torrent, Orbiter2016HiResMars.torrent, Orbiter2016HiResEarth.torrent, Orbiter2016HiResAll.torrent) Compatibility:

Author's Comments:
The official release of Orbiter 2016 - both ZIP and MSI versions, along with the optional high-resolution packs.

You can find more information about these files from http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html - the content here is just to protect against bit-rot in those links.

Project home: Orbiter 2016-MSI/EXE edition(1 file) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2016 (Orbiter2016.exe) Compatibility:

Author's Comments:
The official release of Orbiter 2016 - both ZIP and MSI versions, along with the optional high-resolution packs.

You can find more information about these files from http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html - the content here is just to protect against bit-rot in those links.

Project home: Orbiter 2016-ZIP edition(1 file) Author: Martin Schweiger (martins) Current version: 2016 (Orbiter2016.zip) Compatibility:

Installation Instructions

The Orbiter install with two methods: The MSI and the ZIP method. The MSI (Microsoft installer) method installs Orbiter like a normal Windows application. Just run the MSI file to start the interactive installation process. This method will automatically create a desktop shortcut and start menu entry, including an uninstall option. This method is easy to use, but a bit more restrictive. Manual ZIP file extraction is the traditional method for Orbiter installation. Download the ZIP file, create an Orbiter folder, and extract the contents of the ZIP file into the folder. That's all, and you are ready to launch orbiter.exe. This method is non-intrusive (it doesn't change the registry or system resources), allows multiple copies of Orbiter on a single system, and can be uninstalled by simply deleting the Orbiter folder.

Optional Texture Packs

Optional texture packs provide high-resolution surface textures for planets and moons included within Orbiter distribution. This will improve the visual appearance in many situations, but requires more computing power and a lot of hard disk space.

Open Source

It was announced by Dr. Schweiger on 27 July 2021 that Orbiter has been published under an open source license, (Wikipedia: MIT license). Details can be found at the Orbiter forum , this thread.

See also

• Orbiter Visualisation Project

External Links

• Official Orbiter Website

• Orbiter Forum

• Orbit Hangar Mods