ORBITAL MECHANICS GROUP
Future Features of Solar System Simulator
3-D View of Solar System Simulator
- We want the user to be able to view the solar system from different
angles other than just a top view.
User's ability to choose units for position
- Body's x,y,z position information can be specified either
in Astronomical Units (AU's) or in kilometers.
- Whichever the
user prefers or understands.
Magnification
- User's ability to zoom in and out of specific parts of the
solar system.
More efficient implementation of dynamically changing statistics for bodies
- Popup windows which display the changing x,y,z position
and velocity coordinates of the moving
- bodies
in the solar system need to run faster. In the present simulator,
the program slows down
- quite a bit when these windows are
called up.
Time travel
- User should be able to rewind and fast forward time for any reason he/she desires.
Orbit Tracers
- The bodies in motion would have tracers that outline their
orbital paths so the user can see what
- the paths look like.
Saving Configurations to Disk
- If a user creates a new solar system, the configuration should
be saved on the server's disk so that future
- users can choose
previous configurations which would otherwise have been lost.
Note: Items 4,5,6,and 7 require writing to the user's
hard drive. There are very strict limitations in doing this for
obvious security reasons. It makes for a very difficult time in
implementing these 4 items, BUT IT CAN BE DONE.
Note: Not all of the future features are going to be implemented
due to lack of time. Maybe future ECE120 students can add the missing features.