Online flight simulator similar to wRASP

[Raketenolli]

Sometimes I want to quickly simulate a rocket with just the basic parameters (diameter, mass, a bunch of motors) and not bother with installing software, updating old or incomplete motor databases or designing the entire rocket in detail. This might already exist, but as a small software project I decided to build "WALTS", the Web Altitude Simulator, which offers similar features to wRASP with the same outdated, un-designed look (but that can be fixed!).

It pulls the motor list from Thrustcurve.org and then individual data files each time you select a different one in one of the dropdowns. Then the data is stored in the browser's localStorage on your computer so requests to Thrustcurve.org are infrequent. So yes, the motor database might again be "outdated" or "incomplete", but I think Thrustcurve.org is by far the best we have.

It is available at http://oliver-arend.de/walts/ The code is at https://github.com/raketenolli/walts

In theory you could also run it on your computer, but modern browser's don't like several Javascript files served from the local filesystem. If you understand that last sentence, I'm sure you can make it work ;-)

Let me know what you think!

Oliver

 

[heada]

Why not use thrustcurve.org directly?

Create an account, define your rockets and "favorite" your personal motor inventory. Then you can run a "match a rocket", select your rocket, select "limit to favorite motors" and see all the basic sims for that rocket with your motor inventory. I used this feature a dozen times or so at the last club launch. Worked great.

 

[Raketenolli]

Why not use use thrustcurve.org directly?

It seems to not support clusters, staging or airstarts?
Oliver

 

[heada]

It seems to not support clusters, staging or airstarts?
Oliver

Clusters of same size mmt, yes. Staging and airstarts, no. As-is, it covers +90% of most flights

 

[Reinhard]

Sometimes I want to quickly simulate a rocket with just the basic parameters (diameter, mass, a bunch of motors) and not bother with installing software, updating old or incomplete motor databases or designing the entire rocket in detail. This might already exist, but as a small software project I decided to build "WALTS", the Web Altitude Simulator, which offers similar features to wRASP with the same outdated, un-designed look (but that can be fixed!).

It pulls the motor list from Thrustcurve.org and then individual data files each time you select a different one in one of the dropdowns. Then the data is stored in the browser's localStorage on your computer so requests to Thrustcurve.org are infrequent. So yes, the motor database might again be "outdated" or "incomplete", but I think Thrustcurve.org is by far the best we have.

It is available at http://oliver-arend.de/walts/ The code is at https://github.com/raketenolli/walts

In theory you could also run it on your computer, but modern browser's don't like several Javascript files served from the local filesystem. If you understand that last sentence, I'm sure you can make it work ;-)

Let me know what you think!

Oliver

Nice project!

Two suggestions come to mind:
1. Add option to add parachute size and simulate the whole flight
This might require zoomable plots or the option to only plot the ascent.


2. Encode your parameters into the URL.
This way, your simulation can easily be shared or bookmarked etc.
For example, if you update your settings the URL changes to something like:
http://oliver-arend.de/walts/diam=60.0&weight=800.0 (plus other parameters)

Why not use thrustcurve.org directly?

Create an account, define your rockets and "favorite" your personal motor inventory. Then you can run a "match a rocket", select your rocket, select "limit to favorite motors" and see all the basic sims for that rocket with your motor inventory. I used this feature a dozen times or so at the last club launch. Worked great.

Thrustcurve works too, but it has slightly different goals than a general purpose simulator. So I think there is room for another option. For example, thrustcurve doesn't show results if a motor is underpowered and there are no simulation plots.

Also, this is a hobby. I'd say reinventing the wheel is encouraged.

Reinhard

 

[tsmith1315]

the Web Altitude Simulator, which offers similar features to wRASP with the same outdated, un-designed look

I loved wRASP! Particularly the real-time plot, you "watched" the flight unfold.

 

[heada]

Thrustcurve works too, but it has slightly different goals than a general purpose simulator. So I think there is room for another option. For example, thrustcurve doesn't show results if a motor is underpowered and there are no simulation plots.

Also, this is a hobby. I'd say reinventing the wheel is encouraged.

Reinhard

Yrs it does. There is an option in the results page to show the complete result set. That shows all sim results, even failed ones.

 

[Reinhard]

Yrs it does. There is an option in the results page to show the complete result set. That shows all sim results, even failed ones.

Thanks. I didn't catch that yet.

Reinhard

 

[Raketenolli]

Thanks for the ideas, Reinhard!

Especially the second one is intriguing. Personally, parachute sizing is more black magic than the upward part of the flight simulation, as long as you stay subsonic (or ideally incompressible).

Oliver