Orbital Simulator

A fast N-body orbital mechanics simulator written in Rust.
Simulate the motion of celestial bodies under Newtonian gravity, with easy configuration and efficient output for visualization.

Features

N-body simulation
Configurable initial conditions via JSON
Binary trajectory files
Progress bar
Unit normalization
Ready for visualization (Coming Soon)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Rust (edition 2021 or later)
Bevy dependencies (for 3D visualization; see Bevy's docs for Linux requirements)

Build

cargo build --release

Running the Simulator (CLI)

cargo run --release --bin simulator -- \
  --config path/to/your_config.json \
  --time 30d \
  --step-size 10.0 \
  --output-file trajectory.bin

Arguments:

--config (required): Path to your JSON config file with initial body states.
--time (required): Total simulation time (e.g. 10s, 5m, 2h, 100d).
--step-size: Simulation step size in seconds (default: 10.0).
--output-file (required): Where to save the trajectory data.
--steps-per-save: How often to update the progress bar and save (default: 1000).

Running the 3D Visualizer (`orbiter`)

cargo run --release --bin orbiter

Opens a 3D window with a camera and a blue sphere (placeholder for future simulation data).
Camera controls:
- Right mouse drag: Orbit around the origin
- Scroll wheel: Zoom in/out

Future updates will allow loading and animating simulation output.

Configuration

The config file is a JSON file describing the initial state of each body.
Examples provided in config/

{
  "bodies": [
    {
      "name": "BodyName",
      "mass": 1e10, //kg
      "position": [0.0, 0.0, 0.0], //meters
      "velocity": [0.0, 0.0, 0.0] // m/s
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Units:
- Mass: kilograms (kg)
- Position: meters (m)
- Velocity: meters per second (m/s)

Output

The simulator writes binary snapshots of the system state to the output file using bincode.
Each snapshot contains the simulation time and the real (de-normalized) positions, velocities, and masses of all bodies.

Extending

Add more bodies or change initial conditions in the config file.
Adjust step size and simulation time for accuracy/performance trade-offs.
The code is modular and ready for extension (e.g., new force laws, output formats, or integrators).

License

MIT License

Acknowledgments

Rust
Bevy for 3D visualization
glam for fast vector math
clap for CLI parsing
indicatif for progress bars
serde and bincode for serialization

Author

Thomas Faour

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