Rocket Launch

A guide to launching rockets with axtools.

Welcome! In this tutorial, we'll be launching a rocket from one planet to land on another. We'll use modifiers to simulate forces other than gravity, like thrust and air resistance.

This guide is broken down into 4 steps:

1. Setting up your template

2. Setting up your script

3. Loading the simulation

4. Watching your launch live

Setting up your Template File

Choose any two planets you'd like to travel between. Because rockets are small, we need a smaller delta to make sure the rocket doesn't just fly straight into the planets. For the sake of time, we'll only be simulating 3 bodies:

• The star in the system (the Sun)

• The starting planet (the Earth)

• The destination planet (Mars)

Here's an example template file for this: