Category Archives: Software

Simulators, Software, Space Settlement

‘High Frontier’ space colony sim – Kickstarter to fund final artwork

An announcement about the High Frontier space settlement simuator:

New Video Game Blends Science, Fun

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Oct. 27, 2014 – A small family business launched a KickStarter campaign today for a space settlement simulation game.  The game, called “High Frontier“,  allows the player to design their own free-floating orbital colony.  Players will then be able to go “inside” their colony, and manage the city in detail.

The game is being developed by Strout and Sons, a small company based in Fort Collins, Colorado (USA).  Joe Strout, the lead developer, has previously coauthored two scientific papers on real space settlement designs.  That experience is now being applied to the new video game, which features a custom physics engine to accurately simulate how large rotating bodies behave in space.  Other parts of the simulation cover energy balance and population dynamics.

“High Frontier is already the most accurate, detailed space colony simulator ever made,” Strout said in a statement Monday.  Work on the game has led to several relevant scientific insights, including the realization that inverted endcaps (like the bottom of a soda can) improve the stability of cylindrical space colonies, and recognition of the advantages of building early space colonies in low-Earth orbit.

“The idea of orbital space colonies has been around since the 1970s,” Strout explains, “but hasn’t received much attention in recent years. With High Frontier, we hope to change that.”

High Frontier has been following the incremental release model popularized by such games as Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program.  The team has released ten versions so far, completing the “design” and “build” phases of the game.  The third phase of the game, managing the colony, is still in progress; so far only an external view is available.  To support the internal city-management view, the company has launched a KickStarter campaign (www.kickstarter.com/projects/1045364912/high-frontier).  The team hopes to raise $10,000, which will be used primarily to fund custom artwork for the city simulation.

“We hope this game will help people realize the vast potential of the solar system,” Strout says.  “High Frontier is designed to both entertain and inspire.”

The KickStarter campaign continues until November 26.

Astronomy, Education, Software

Part 3: Photometry tutorial for amateur and pro astronomers

Rick Boozer on his Astro Maven blog has posted the third installment of his Photometry with AIP4WIN: a Tutorial, which is aimed at astronomers both amateur and professional:

From Part 1:

The science of photometry can be used by both amateur astronomers and professionals for some very advanced scientific work.  You can detect the light changes caused by eclipsing binary stars, plot the changes in luminosity of a variable star and even detect an exoplanet orbiting another star.  This tutorial will be your step-by-step guide on how to employ the powerful Magnitude Measurement Tool that comes with the renowned astronomical imaging software known as AIP4WIN by Richard Berry and Robert Burnell.  Special thanks to Mr. Berry for giving me permission to include screen images and extensive operating details from AIP4WIN.

Astronomy, Software

Part 2: Photometry tutorial for amateur and pro astronomers

Rick Boozer posts the second installment of his tutorial on photometry with the AIP4WIN software package:

From Part 1:

The science of photometry can be used by both amateur astronomers and professionals for some very advanced scientific work.  You can detect the light changes caused by eclipsing binary stars, plot the changes in luminosity of a variable star and even detect an exoplanet orbiting another star.  This tutorial will be your step-by-step guide on how to employ the powerful Magnitude Measurement Tool that comes with the renowned astronomical imaging software known as AIP4WIN by Richard Berry and Robert Burnell.  Special thanks to Mr. Berry for giving me permission to include screen images and extensive operating details from AIP4WIN.

Asteroids & Comets, Software, Space participation

NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge

NASA and topcoder are sponsoring the Asteroid Grand Challenge:

The Asteroid Grand Challenge Series will be comprised of a series of topcoder challenges to get more people from around the planet involved in finding all asteroid threats to human populations and figuring out what to do about them. In an increasingly connected world, NASA recognizes the value of the public as a partner in addressing some of the country’s most pressing challenges. 

For example, there is the AsteroidDataHunter challenge, which

tasks competitors to develop significantly improved algorithms to identify asteroids in images from ground-based telescopes. The winning solution must increase the detection sensitivity, minimize the number of false positives, ignore imperfections in the data, and run effectively on all computers – 

This video explains the basics of the Asteroid Grand Challenge:

Education, Simulators, Software

HOMA orbit simulator

Check out the Homa  online space orbit simulator and “Experience the joy of simulating space orbits!” The online tool is the creation of Iranian aerospace engineer Abolfazl Shirazi.

This site focuses on online simulation of space orbits including 3D visualization of orbits, ground track and analytical results with given orbital parameters. It is optimized for learning orbital mechanics and analyzing space orbits.

 

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