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pioneerspacesim / pioneer

A game of lonely space adventure
https://pioneerspacesim.net
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Gravitational corridors on HUD or as autopilot routes #1879

Closed mikehgentry closed 11 years ago

mikehgentry commented 11 years ago

Not quite a duplicate of https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/985

'Gravitational corridor' seems to be the normal term, though wiki has it as the 'interplanetary transport nework'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_transport_network

It would be great if you select a body and have the game plot a low fuel route for you, and mark it on the HUD like the navigational tunnel, or set it as an autopilot target.

Could be a last ditch survival method when you've nearly run out of fuel, or if the mechanism was there it could open up using such routes between planets as 'freight highways' for heavy ships where fuel economy is more important than speed.

johnbartholomew commented 11 years ago

Given the difficulty of computing such routes, the incredible efficiency of thrusters and the low price of energy (circa 3200), it seems unlikely that these routes would see much use.

I'm closing this as being too non-specific right now (not something actionable), but feel free to take the suggestion to the pioneer mailing list for further discussion, if you'd like.

Brianetta commented 11 years ago

Quick addendum: Pioneer uses single body, frame based physics. This means that such a path would not be continuous, and would certainly not resemble real ones.