Where did the Simulator come from?
The Solar System Simulator originated as JPL’s SPACE software package, which consisted of a set of computer graphics programs designed to simulate spacecraft trajectories and produce various photographic and video products. The SPACE package was specifically designed for animating space missions and was uniquely suited to JPL mission design. For the Voyager encounters, SPACE provide realistic encounter visualizations, graphical bases for the analyses of high-level problems and visual aids to trajectory design. The Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune flyby movies which SPACE developed were greeted with great excitement, shown on NOVA programs and major TV networks, and fostered much enthusiasm for the space program around the world. To create a mission simulation, SPACE used a spacecraft model, scientific instrument characteristics, and a conic elements file that described spacecraft and celestial body states. Planetary texture maps, observer orientation routines and orbit propagation c
