Current features
General
- Fully cross-platform, written in Java
- Fully documented simulation methods
- Open Source, source code available under the GNU GPL
User interface
- Easy-to-use user interface for rocket design
- Real-time view of CG and CP position
- Real-time flight altitude, velocity and acceleration information from a continuous simulation performed in the background
- Zoomable schematic view of rocket from the side or rear, with rotation around the center axis
Design
- A multitude of available components to choose from
- Trapezoidal, elliptical and free-form fins supported
- Support for canted fins (roll stabilization)
- Staging and clustering support
- Automatic calculation of component mass and CG based on shape and density
- Ability to override mass and CG of components or stages separately
Simulation and analysis
- Full six degree of freedom simulation
- Rocket stability computed using extended Barrowman method
- Automatic design optimization — you can optimize any number of rocket parameters for flight altitude, maximum velocity or a number of other values
- Realistic wind modeling
- Analysis of the effect of separate components on the stability, drag and roll characteristics of the rocket
- Fully configurable plotting, with various preset configurations
- Simulation data can be exported to CSV files for further analysis
- Simulation listeners allowing custom-made code to interact with the rocket during flight simulation
Planned future features
OpenRocket is under constant work in the free time of the developers. You can have a sneak preview on what has been planned by checking the TODO-file in the SVN repository.
Below are a few major features that are under consideration:
- Aerodynamic computation using CFD (help needed!)
- Better support for supersonic simulation (help needed!)
- 3D view of the rocket design (help needed!)
- Printing and saving figures, simulation data and designs
- Support for ready-made component databases
- Customized support for hybrid rocket motors and water rockets
- Importing and plotting actual flight data from altimeters
- Rocket flight animation
- A "wizard" for creating new rocket designs
- More ideas are listed in the TODO-file!
If you want to help make OpenRocket the best rocket simulator, don't hesitate to Get involved!
