Category: Orbiter - Spaceships
Explorer 1 Add-on for Orbiter

File Description:
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States when it was sent into space on January 31, 1958. Following the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency was directed to launch a satellite using its Jupiter C rocket developed under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory received the assignment to design, build and operate the artificial satellite that would serve as the rocket's payload. JPL completed this job in less than three months. The primary science instrument on Explorer 1 was a cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment in Earth orbit. Once in space this experiment, provided by Dr. James Van Allen of the State University of Iowa, revealed a much lower cosmic ray count than expected. Van Allen theorized that the instrument may have been saturated by very strong radiation from a belt of charged particles trapped in space by Earth's magnetic field. The existence of these radiation belts was confirmed by another U.S. satellite launched two months later, and they became known as the Van Allen Belts in honor of their discoverer. Explorer 1 revolved around Earth in a looping orbit that took it as close as 354 kilometers (220 miles) to Earth and as far as 2,515 kilometers (1,563 miles). It made one orbit every 114.8 minutes, or a total of 12.54 orbits per day. The satellite itself was 203 centimeters (80 inches) long and 15.9 centimeters (6.25 inches) in diameter. Explorer 1 made its final transmission on May 23, 1958. It entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up on March 31, 1970, after more than 58,000 orbits. The satellite weighed 14 kilograms (30.8 pounds).

Filename:	Explorer_1_Addon_for_Orbiter.zip
License:	Freeware
Added:	27th September 2004, 16:24:14
Downloads:	1,258
Author:	Jim Williams
Size:	565.57 KB

Category: Orbiter - Spaceships
U.S.S. Enterprise 2702-D

File Description:
The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D was a Galaxy-class extended-duration starship and the flagship of Starfleet. The fifth starship to be named Enterprise, she was commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard. With a total of 42 decks, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D was twice the length and had eight times the interior space of the Constitution-class ships of over a century earlier; she carried a combined crew and passenger load of about 1,012. Defensive systems included 10 phaser banks, 250 photon torpedoes, and a high capacity shield grid; there are some 4,000 power systems in all aboard ship. Full acceleration time from reverse, sub-light impulse through nominal top warp speed, warp 9, was 0.03 milliseconds. The ship achieved maximum speed of warp 9.5 maximum when pursued by the entity known as "Q"; at warp 9.3 its engines had passed the red line. By stardate 43205, she had already logged tens of thousands of light-years since setting out around stardate 41153.7 after Jean-Luc Picard formally became her first captain on stardate 41124. An average day aboard ship, according to Lieutenant Commander Data, included four birthdays, two personnel transfers, two chess tournaments, a secondary school play, four promotions, the celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights — and a birth and wedding. Some 13 planets were represented among the ship's complement as of stardate 44247. During the Borg incursion of 2366, Decks 23-25 were sliced open by the enemy during the final battle over Earth and requiring a refit at Earth Station McKinley which lasted 5-6 weeks. It was far less damage than the kamikaze warp-driven collision Commander Riker had readied as one last recourse, however. During that refit, the starship received a phaser upgrade as well as damage repair and a dilithium chamber articulation frame. It off-loaded the original three Runabouts and the first arriving officers at Deep Space Nine. The U.S.S. Enterprise-D was destroyed in 2371 after an attack by renegade Klingons breached her warp core. Although the saucer section separated before the breach, the force of the explosion caused the section to crash on the planet Veridian III. Fortunately, losses were minimal.

Filename:	USS_Enterprise_2702D.zip
License:	Freeware
Added:	12th July 2004, 04:41:12
Downloads:	2,212
Author:	Jim Williams
Size:	1.45 MB