
WorldWide Telescope users can take tours narrated by astronomers and educators from major universities and planetariums, or they can zoom and pan around the night sky on their own. Then, Dettloff fired up WorldWide Telescope on a projector and let them have their wishes - virtually, at least. Black holes proved popular, and students also brought up comets, planets, and other galaxies. First, she asked students to write down where they would go if they could explore anywhere in the universe. With her third and fourth graders, Dettloff has been testing WorldWide Telescope, a Microsoft beta program that seamlessly stitches a virtual universe together from images taken by Earth- and space-based telescopes. Lisa Dettloff, a science specialist at the Nueva School, a private K-8 school in Hillsborough, California, says the value of these programs lies in their ability to spark students' enthusiasm and satisfy their passion for exploration. "You can use the beautiful images to draw them in, and then you can teach them about the science, chemistry, physics, and dynamic that is going on behind these beautiful pictures," he explains. Summers, who visits classrooms as part of the institute's outreach, has relied on virtual tools to give kindergartners and third graders an accurate mental model of the solar system. "When you see that awestruck look on their faces, you know you've gotten them interested in science," notes Frank Summers, an outreach astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Hubble Space Telescope's science operations center. Spaceflight Simulator is an impressive game for anyone who loves space simulations and wants an easier entrypoint to this relatively challenging genre.Developers and educators who use these programs hope they will inspire a new generation of Neil Armstrongs, students motivated by awe and curiosity to not only learn about space but also pursue careers in science. Luckily, controls in Spaceflight Simulator are much simpler than in Kerbal Space Program, so you don't need to calculate too much in order to reach your goal.Įvery time your spaceship returns to Earth safely, Spaceflight Simulator shows you a list of all the objectives you've met. To add to the challenge, after that, you try to land on various celestial bodies and return to your home planet in one piece. First, you have to build a rocket that's stable enough and powerful enough to escape the earth's atmosphere without any major issues.


Gameplay in Spaceflight Simulator is divided into two very different sections. Basically, you'll have everything you need to build complex spaceships for completing all kinds of space missions in order to finance future projects. Spaceflight Simulator is an interesting simulator that transports you to the Kerbal Space Program with nothing more than your smartphone.
