The Planets Explorer 2.0

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The Planets Explorer is a computer program that calculates the position of the planets and satellites of the Solar System, providing a highly realistic tri-dimensional representation of them on the screen. This representation is fully dynamic, in such a way that rotation and translation of cellestial bodies can be observed as if the user had a camera located in any point within the Solar System. The user has total control on the date and time of observation. He can also change the rate at which time flows. Just like nature programs use time-lapse photography to show processes that take place too slow to see in real time, you can speed up or slow down time to get the best possible views of an astronomical event.

The Planets Explorer is very easy to use and yet very powerfull. Most of the operations can be accessed through buttons in the tools bar or via simple menus. Selection of point of view is also very simple, thanks to the different navigation modes.

The Planets Explorer supports three modes of Navigation through the Solar System: Teleport mode, Trip Mode and Fly mode. Each one allows you to explore the Solar System in a different way, giving total freedom of movement and selection of point of view. In Teleport mode, you jump instantly to the Planet or Satellite that is selected. Upon activation of the Teleport mode, the point of observation is located at a distance of three radius from the selected body (i.e. around 20000 km in the case of the Earth), being the selected Planet or Satellite centred in the screen. In Trip mode, when you select a Planet or Satellite, you start a space trip towards it. First, your field of view rotates until the selected body is centred in the screen. After that, the field of view approaches the body until reaching a distance of three body radius. The trip is executed in about 15 seconds.The Fly navigation mode allows you to explore the surface of a Planet or Satellite by making a low altitude flight over it. The flight is controlled by the mouse giving you total control of the way you want to explore. Simple mouse actions allows the user to change the point of view in every of the navigation modes: the viewing angle can be rotated, the distance to the selected body changed, the view zoomed.

The Planets Explorer includes several tools that provide additional functions:

The Ephemeris Tool calculates the astronomical coordinates of planets and satellites, presenting them in the screen in a table form. Such coordinates can be used to precisely orientate a telescope, in order to perform real observations. The position of the observer is defined with the Location Tool.

The location Tool allows the user to define his/her position on the surface of the Earth. This position is required to calculate the topocentric coordinates for ephemeris calculation. The user can choose between a list of the most important cities in the world, can introduce directly the latitude and longitude of his position or, alternatively, select such position by clicking in an Earth´s map.

Perhaps the most espectacular tool of The Planets Explorer is the Trip Planner. This tool allows the user to design an space trip trhough the solar system, defining the different steps and, for every one of them, the view of the desired planet that he likes. Once the trip has been defined, it can be recorded in files for later use. The recorded trips can be visualized, like a video movie, both from the Trip Planner tool as welll as from the main Planets Explorer window.