The J2 effect is deliberately not modeled, masses are asuumed to be point masses. Principia does not model solar wind or residual drag (in RSS, the Earths atmopshere is still cut off sharply at 130km height). With Principia, you get Lagrange points, orbital perturbations due to otzher bodies, etc. There is a mod called 'Principia' for KSP, that introduces true n-body simulation. orbital mechanics are already complex enough. Thats good, because its a game, and needs to be somewhat accessible. If you put your space station up there into a certain orbit, it stays there and doesn't fall out of the sky suddenly. The other thing is that is allows for very predictable orbits. this is actully pretty important for the game, as no-one likes to wait years to get to their target.

Orbital Perturbations are deliberately not modeled in KSP, for two reasons: Using only the restricted 2-body system allows analytic solutions, allowing you to skip large portions of the time without loss of precision in the orbital simulation. It's been in active public development for about a decade, with regular patches improving the sim and adding to the feature set.

You can also fly spacecraft with realistic newtonian physics and Alcubierre Warp Drives (Spacecraft are still at an early stage of development, but they're fun).ĭespite the program still being in development, there are many mods available. Cruise through canyons on the detailed icy surface of a Gas Giant's moon in an undiscovered galaxy 4 billion light years away! Sail through the comet-like tail of a planet being cooked to death by its star! Marvel at the gravitational lensing around an ominous black hole! You can float around the cosmos as a disembodied camera and go wherever you wish as fast as you wish.

It isn't a game, per se, but it features most known catalogued stars, astronomical objects, and exoplanets, but wherever it doesn't have real-life data to draw from, it creates realistic star systems, nebulae, black holes, and galaxies. Space Engine is a free procedural simulator of the entire universe.

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