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http://copernicus.exosphe.re
Friends of mine are going to be running a learning camp in Budapest this July, themed around building a space elevator.
Not just any space elevator, but the one that is using the spoils of space mining going down to power the lifting of the payloads.
However, building it is not the goal (duh ), the goal is to use the concept as a case study for getting people interested in space science by giving them an exciting problem.
Trying to bridge the gap between research and business along the way.
Naturally, there will be orbital mechanics involved.
It didn't took much to convince them that we need Orbiter.
I ran a quick survey among them, which showed a lack of common sense about space flight that any orbinaut would have.
I.e. that you need to burn retrograde (instead of down) to get back to Earth from the ISS.
It's curious how one can know all the theory, but have no real intuition about how things work up there.
Orbiter is a perfect tool for giving that kind of intuition, for letting people play around with spaceships and see for themselves how things work.
Quite likely i will be there to run a basic course of orbital mechanics and spaceflight misconceptions, centred around Orbiter.
So, we are looking for feedback.
-The broad question of what do you think of the whole idea?
What sounds good, what sounds like it should be improved?
How much sense does the site makes? ( http://copernicus.exosphe.re )
-Any advice (or experience stories) on how best to use Orbiter to teach the common sense of spaceflight?
There will be quite a bit of technical people, but some relatively clueless ones as well.
The idea is to help people develop newtonian intuition, the ability to predict what would happen with a manoeuvring spacecraft in the same way they can predict what would happen to a manoeuvring car.
My idea was to give them the survey, then demonstrate with Orbiter what would happen for every wrong answer, with a running commentary on why and how.
There will also be a simpit corner, and everyone will be welcome to install Orbiter on their laptops.
-And if you like it, you're welcome to apply while it's only $650 for the three week program.
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