Orbiter Space Flight Simulator Delta Glider Test Flight

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator 2010 is a real-time 3D space flight simulator developed by Dr. Martin Schweiger that was first released in November 2000 and has gone through several updates with the most recent having been released in August 2010. The program is available for free and weighs in at approximately 2 GB as a compressed download and 3 GB when stored in a folder (it can be run directly from a folder without writing anything to the system registry).

The game attempts to simulate space flight by using Newtonian physics in an effort to correct a perceived lack of realistic physics based flight models in other space flight simulators that were available at the time of initial development. It models with a high degree of accuracy planetary motion, gravitational effects, atmospheric flight and orbital decay among other things. It allows the user to experience both manned and unmanned space flight missions.

Up until this point my experience with space flight simulations has been confined to crashing a lot in Lunar Flight and killing several Kerbal’s in a Steam demo before calling it a day. This is where OSFS comes in quite handy as there are several different ships available to master with a range of scenarios to practice (without a mounting Kerbal death toll). For this outing, I chose to start with the relatively easy DG/DG-S Mk. 4 “Delta Glider” and the “Docked at ISS” demo scenario.

Docked at the International Space Station just after midnight.

After setting the RSC Thrusters to Translation/Linear mode, I disengage the couple with the ISS and separate with a gentle application of thrust. Once clear of the docking ring, I close the nose cone docking mechanism. Once this is done I set the on board navigation system to a preset earth orbit.

When the PeT (time until periapsis) reading on the MFD reaches 60 (or there about) I engage the PRO GRADE system to start the roll into the desired earth orbit.

Damn, I forgot my cell phone.

Once the PeT reading on the MFD reaches 0 (or there about) I engage the main engine for a short burst until my ApA (apoapsis altitude) reading is 500k. I am sure I am doing something wrong here as that dock notification at the top of the HUD probably should not be there.

Weeee!!!! – Maxwell, GEICO Spokespig (it’s an American thing…)

Level Horizon: that sounds good about now.

Those are going to be some hellacious roaming charges from Verizon.

What goes down…

…must come up.

Post Mortem

Phil over at Sim Deck posted about this game recently and it piqued my curiosity. His write-up is available here (he spends a great deal more time in flight simulations than I do so he knows what he is talking about).

This is one of those games that scream to be given attention and I suppose the more that you put into it, the more you get out of it.

No Kerbals were harmed in the writing of this post.