Advanced Question Orbiter core

[D-mo]

Is my understanding correct that all planets and moons in Orbiter move along certain modeled paths (eg, VSOP87) and all vessels' motion is determined by the computed gravitational forces?

 

[n72.75]

Is my understanding correct that all planets and moons in Orbiter move along certain modeled paths (eg, VSOP87) and all vessels' motion is determined by the computed gravitational forces?

I believe this is true for the most part, not all VSOP87 of course, but yes.

IIRC (someone fact check me), Orbiter does have the ability to propagate a celbody from n-body gravitational sources, excluding perturbations.

 

[jedidia]

IIRC (someone fact check me), Orbiter does have the ability to propagate a celbody from n-body gravitational sources, excluding perturbations.

You can choose a dynamic model in the config, AFAIK. They tend to be somewhat prone to getting ejected from the system at high time acceleration, though. I think for custom bodies it's best to just stick it to the orbital parameters. I never looked into how you'd go about building an actual ephemeris...

 

[misha.physics]

That's interesting if it's better (in various aspects) to use the predetermined (for a quite big time interval) trajectories of all celestial bodies or calculate them every time during the simulation session.