For Science LinX I’ve working on an exhibit regarding the ESA Herschel satellite for the last 6 months, and I’m happy to inform you that it’s almost complete.

Features

-Camera is moved by using multi-touch signals sent by monitor, -Accurate simulation of our solar system, planets support properties like eccentricity, inclination, orbital radius, equatorial diameter,  rotations per earth-year, orbits per earth-year. -Herschel satellite stationary in lagrange point L2. -Fully 3D -Multiple lighting effects

  • Particle effects (not currently used) -Beautiful skybox generated using Space Scape -Expandable information boxes slowly center arc-ball camera on P.O.I. -Twitter integration (following the @ESAHERSCHEL channel) -Clickable planets, satellites and points of interests -Multiple Zoom levels smoothly change information windows, ‘tunnel vision’.

Screenshots

Anyway, this all sounds exciting (or not) but it’s always better  to see it for yourself:

Herschel

The Team

  • Bart v/d Laar (Project Manager Science LinX)
  • Ingeborg Veldman (Project Manager Science LinX Virtual)
  • Hilbert Dijkstra (Project Designer, Text Writer)
  • Roy Triesscheijn (Programmer)
  • Hugo Engwerda (Artist)
  • Gerwin Kramer (Modeler)
  • Peter Barthel (Astronomer/Technical Consultant)