OpenRocket 13.05

OpenRocket is a free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows you to design and simulate your rockets before actually building and flying them.

General

• Fully cross-platform, written in Java
• Fully documented simulation methods
• Open Source, source code available under the GNU GPL

User interface

• Easy-to-use user interface for rocket design
• Real-time view of CG and CP position
• Real-time flight altitude, velocity and acceleration information from a continuous simulation performed in the background
• Zoomable schematic view of rocket from the side or rear, with rotation around the center axis

Design

• A multitude of available components to choose from
• Trapezoidal, elliptical and free-form fins supported
• Support for canted fins (roll stabilization)
• Staging and clustering support
• Automatic calculation of component mass and CG based on shape and density
• Ability to override mass and CG of components or stages separately

Simulation and analysis

• Full six degree of freedom simulation
• Rocket stability computed using extended Barrowman method
• Automatic design optimization — you can optimize any number of rocket parameters for flight altitude, maximum velocity or a number of other values
• Realistic wind modeling
• Analysis of the effect of separate components on the stability, drag and roll characteristics of the rocket
• Fully configurable plotting, with various preset configurations
• Simulation data can be exported to CSV files for further analysis
• Simulation listeners allowing custom-made code to interact with the rocket during flight simulation