Editor: Spacecraft Tutorial
A common use of Nominal Editor is to construct a spacecraft simulation. Nominal Editor provides a range of spacecraft and satellite components that function out of the box. Many of the demos found in the content browser use spacecraft and simulate the components attached to the craft. In this tutorial, a simple spacecraft will be created with a solar panel and a guidance computer and executed in the simulation. The spacecraft will orient itself to point towards the sun and draw power from the solar panel. This tutorial will only cover the basics and more advanced components can be found in the User Guides section of the documentation.
Table of Contents
- Creating a Simulation
- Configuring the Universe
- Configuring a Spacecraft
- Configuring Components
- Configuring User Interface
- Ticking the Simulation
Minimum Requirements
Nominal Editor must have been installed prior to this tutorial commencing. More information can be found at the document below:
A basic understanding of the Unreal Engine and how blueprint nodes work. The Unreal Engine site provides some basic tutorials on this.
Key Learnings
- Simulations: Understand how to create new levels in Unreal and configure the basic properties of a simulation with blueprint coding.
- Universe: Configure a basic universe system at the correct epoch and understand how to fetch systems and call functions in blueprints.
- Spacecraft: Spawn spacecraft and configure their mass properties. Learn how to configure a spacecraft initial orbit.
- Attach Components: Understand how to attach components to a spacecraft and move them to the correct location on the craft.
- User Interface: Utilize a basic user interface for plotting data on the screen and showing the current simulation status.