SaVi

SaVi is a cool piece of software that’s totally free and open-source! It's perfect for anyone interested in checking out satellite constellations orbiting our planet. With SaVi, you can visualize and play around with satellite orbits in both 2D and 3D, making it a fun tool for learning and exploration.

What Can You Do with SaVi?

This program comes packed with different satellite constellations like Iridium, Galileo, O3b, Globalstar, Sirius Radio, and GPS (Global Positioning System). To get started, you’ll need the Tcl/Tk libraries along with Geomview for those awesome 3D visualizations.

Key Features of SaVi

SaVi has a bunch of features that make it easy to use. It supports several satellites and has an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). Plus, it works with multiple Earth projections and is compatible with various operating systems. If you're into 3D viewing, you’ll appreciate its Geomview compatibility and OpenGL support!

Diverse Satellite Constellations

You can explore a wide range of constellations using SaVi! Some popular ones include COMMstellation, Ellipso, ICO, NUONCE, Aries, Macrocell, Odyssey, Spaceway NGSO, Boeing Higgings patent, Deligo, ICO again (yep!), SkyBridge, Teledesic, and Celestri. So there’s plenty to discover!

User-Friendly Interface

The graphical user interface is built using Tk. It might look a bit old-school compared to today’s apps. When you first launch the application, you'll see a main window pop up along with another dialog showing comments about certain satellites.

Loading and Saving Satellites

Under the File menu in SaVi, you'll find options to load satellites or save them as Tcl scripts. You can also edit simulation constants or create new satellites from the Edit menu. It's all pretty straightforward!

A Peek Under the Hood

If you're curious about how SaVi works behind the scenes: it’s written using C, Unix Shell, and Tcl programming languages. This software is designed to be compatible across all GNU/Linux distributions as well as FreeBSD, Solaris; it even runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X! Whether you’re on a 32-bit or 64-bit system doesn't matter; it's got your back!

If you're interested in giving this software a try or want more details about SaVi, check out their website for the download!