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Even legs and a gentle arrival: v0.4.0-dev.18

Sunholo
Sunholo
Stapledon's Voyage team

Every Solar System leg now has the same rhythm, about 2¼ minutes in real time: 30 seconds accelerating, about a minute cruising, then braking into a 25-second final approach. The longer legs simply go faster, above 0.999c to Jupiter and Saturn, so the planets now ease into view instead of appearing in the last few seconds.

The HUD during the final approach to Jupiter

What's new​

  • Even legs. The simulation solves each leg's thrust and cruise speed so the boost lasts 30 s and the cruise about 60 s: 0.07c for the short Callisto hop, 0.99943c (γ 30) to Jupiter, 0.99963c (γ 37) to Saturn. Sun → Jupiter takes about 2¼ minutes instead of 6½.
  • A gentle final approach. A new trip profile brakes hard, then eases in for 25 s from where the planet is 4° across, so Jupiter grows smoothly instead of exploding in the last 8 s. It's built from the same exact constant-acceleration physics, in sunholo/relativity 0.9.0. The HUD says FINAL APPROACH.
  • Skip stage [K]. Jump to the next stage of the leg: accelerating → cruise → braking → final approach → arrival. It lands exactly on each stage, and the HUD counts how many you skipped.
  • Distances on the HUD: to the destination, from the last stop, and from Earth, plus this leg's thrust.

Not yet​

At the faster in-system speeds, the bubble wall's glow tints the forward view; how to present it is open. Stars beyond the Sun still appear as points: giving every visited star its real size (TRAPPIST-1, Aldebaran) is the next sprint.

Release: v0.4.0-dev.18-even-legs · Gallery · Integration PR #134.