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Posted by: dmuller May 31 2008, 12:59 AM

Now that Phoenix has landed safely, I have some time to develop the real-time simulation script further, obviously for other missions I'm wondering what information you would like to see or other changes you would like to be made (no guarantee though that I will be able to implement everything!). Which missions should go online first? Other forms of the script, e.g. add-on lines for signatures etc?

One change that is already coded is a small sub-routine that avoids the scripts jumping a second (e.g. :30 :31 :33 :34) as happened in the Phoenix version. Another change already implemented is that the milestones now show both the countdowns as well as the time of the event (useful for, e.g., NH's Pluto flyby ... when exactly is 2600 days from now???)

Posted by: SpaceListener May 31 2008, 02:01 AM

For me, the script was very good reference tool. I can combine your script with NASA TV and others blogs in order to follow as close as possible the real time events in multiples windows on the desktop.

The countdown for every milestone is a good idea.

Posted by: jamescanvin May 31 2008, 08:30 AM

Off the top of my head, missions I'd like to see, in order of preference:

MESSENGER
Hayabusa: Return to Earth
Dawn
New Horizons

Posted by: djellison May 31 2008, 08:31 AM

The next Messenger flyby? Dawn's Mars flyby?

Doug

Posted by: imipak May 31 2008, 12:25 PM

How about a locally-installable, offline version? Could be the world's first useful XUL-based application

Posted by: Paolo Amoroso Jun 2 2008, 08:55 AM

I'd like LRO.


Paolo Amoroso

Posted by: dmuller Jun 3 2008, 10:27 AM

Thanks for the messages so far. A few general comments and then to your suggestions.

I was also looking for what other info could be included in the scripts. That could be anything if it's a number (or a phase / state / ...), ideally it changes / moves and it can be 'predicted' what it will be in the future). Some of my ideas (and questions), not sure if all the required data is out there ...:
RTG power of Voyager 1 and 2
Thrusting / Not-thrusting of Dawn
Notional DSN coverage
Angular Diameter (from what point on does it make sense?)
Gravitational forces / accelerations (from what point on does it make sense?)
...

I have been streamlining the scripts and use New Horizons for testing. Currently populating the data for it and I should have something to show for in the near future.

Now to your suggestions / comments

I am thinking of 'incorporating' view(s) of the Solar System Simulator but I'm not sure if they will be too happy with the additional traffic this may generate.



I will focus on missions that have major events coming up. Rosetta @ Stein's, Messenger @ Mercury 2, Dawn @ Mars ... Interestingly nobody mentioned Cassini - lots of events, but a major headache for trajectory information (requires a huge amount of data to get info like distance flown etc). LRO isnt 'interplanetary' so it was off my radar, need to research on it first. Hayabusa is interesting, especially given its next target, but I dont think there is enough information out there for my purposes.


There was an offline version of the Phoenix script, used in some outreach presentation during landing as well as in some spaceflight exhibitions. It's just a html document with a javascript inside, but because it's offline, it needs to carry a lot of information and thus becomes large. The Phoenix off-line script was 2MB (most of it data) large. The main issue is updates for the scripts (like fixing error, updating data, data expires etc). I'm open to suggestions on how best to 'manage' that.

Keep ideas rolling in!

Posted by: dmuller Jun 5 2008, 02:10 AM

I have released a rush beta simulation for New Horizons (in time for Saturn orbit crossing) at http://www.dmuller.net/newhorizons/ At the same time, I created a Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/dmuller where I intend to post updates etc.