spyce

Spyce: Python in outer space! Basically, a very much work-in-progress pile of code to plan orbital trajectories and interplanetary travel. Its also quite handy when doing simple computations: >>> # distance to the Sun, in light-seconds >>> Earth.orbit.semi_major_axis / c 499.00650691887006 >>> # Martian year, in (usual Earth) days >>> Mars.orbit.period / Earth.solar_day 686.9944644093075 >>> # ping to New Horizons (light roundtrip), in hours >>> (Pluto.orbit.periapsis - Earth.orbit.apoapsis) / c / 3600 * 2 7.9167895224639375 The graphical interface does work though! (kinda) It's initially inspired from Kerbal Space Program, so it defaults to showing Kerbin and its universe. However, you can choose Earth instead. I like to just zoom in and out, and explore the Solar system; the vastness of that is so m

Interesting... This function from your project: https://github.com/qsantos/spyce/blob/master/cext/orbit.c#L8... Looks somewhat similar to what I did a few years ago in a now-abandoned project of mine: https://github.com/rikusalminen/libkepler/blob/master/src/ke... Did you by any chance, happen to look at my code for reference? Or are they somewhat similar just out of coincidence and similar naming conventions? If you did, in fact, look at my project for reference, I'm glad to have helped! Just for comparison, here's the orbit determination from initial conditions code from a newer project of mine. It doesn't compute the classical orbital directly, because that tends to add numerical error (ie. first you compute inclination using acos() and a moment later you compute the orientation matrix using cos(inclination)). https://github.com/rikusa

In case it might be of some use to anyone, I started a guide for beginners on the subject: https://airsick.guide/ . For Python fans (or anyone with a computer, really), there is also a (very simple) library designed with KSP in mind: https://github.com/qsantos/spyce.