London Gifted & Talented - Space Science Simulations

londongt.org teachers students

Customising the Initial State
Universe | Rocket

Complete list of variables for 'Rocket'

Design settings: creating your spacecraft

v_stages: list of masses from first stage through to payload; default value 10,10

Launch settings: start with a build, or start with a launch?

v_autolaunch: whether or not to launch automatically (1: yes; 0: no); default value 0

Environment settings: where we're leaving from

v_planet: (0: mercury; 1: venus; 2: earth; 3: moon; 4: mars; 5: jupiter; 6: saturn; 7: uranus; 8: neptune; 9: pluto; 10: custom); default value 3
v_radius: if v_planet has setting 10, radius of planet; default value 50000
v_g: if v_planet has setting 10, strength of gravity at surface; default value 0

Advanced settings: engineering constraints

v_exhaust: exhaust velocity; default value 3000
v_massratio: ratio of fuel mass to total mass in propulsion units; default value 0.87

Both the 'Space Science' simulations allow you to change certain settings.

For example, in 'Universe', you can set up an acceleration law or a velocity law; towards or perpendicular to the sun; proportional to distance, or to distance squared, or... and so on.

And in 'Rocket', you can launch from the Moon, or Earth, or anywhere else in the Solar System; with a payload of whatever mass you like; with a propulsion unit with as many stages as you like, of whatever size you like; and so on.

The easiest way to change these settings is by hand, by playing with the simulation. But what if you want to start up the simulation with particular settings (for a presentation, for example)? This can be done by putting information into the Web address.