Fancy space visualization things!

I installed an open source piece of simulation software by NASA called GMAT (general mission analysis tool) which has a GUI and a scripting interface. (GMAT is really cool, though I sadly don’t understand much of it yet) It can output computer-readable files of where things go (among other things) and I made a demo program for reading these files (if GMAT is configured correctly) and visualizing the position of a satellite.

I’m planning to compile GMAT (written in C++) to WebAssembly so I can use its capabilities inside the game, for realistic physics. For now, I’m just pre-generating output files and showing them.

The image below is the path of a satellite being launched into orbit around the moon. Currently, neither the position of the earth nor the moon are shown, only the path of the satellite. The Z axis is also not shown yet, because I haven’t done much 3D graphics coding. The color represents time.

Disclaimer: This is my first time doing much with outer space and physics simulations, meaning I don’t know that much about it right now. I hope to learn more about these topics as this project continues in development!

TL;DR: GMAT = fancy NASA software for simulating/planning missions. I’m using GMAT for realistic simulations (currently manually, programmatically in the future). Image is of a satellite being launched into lunar orbit.