There

Space Shuttle, anyone? I would really enjoy a complex simulation of a real STS mission (ISS construction, Satellite deployment, Hubble telescope repair). That would be serious fun indeed. So would apollo missions to the Moon, with rovers, with malfunctions (Apollo XIII).Cheers,- jahman.

There is Space Shuttle Mission 2007 ... a very high fidelity Shuttle sim that does much of what you ask, the company that produce it are working on a follow up.Space Shuttle simBeware though, the copy protection is about the worst ever implemented, as a PC enthusiast I upgrade often, but even after the first upgrade I had to fight for a re-activation again, recently bought just a new graphic card to the rig that I use this sim for ... it detected new hardware and now I have to go jump through this company's hoops for another activation ... they told me (quite smugly) the last time I only have two more activations <----- a ridiculous state of affairs, my mate has the pirated version and here I am being punished for buying it :(I'm not a whiner, even the fairest of reviews of this otherwise great technical sim of the Shuttle missions gets negative comments on SimHQ about these issues ... its not a cheap sim either ... I'm going to think real hard about buying their forthcoming version.Apparently they have a less draconian version now copy protection wise ... and the reply I got last time from their customer support was ... I should have bought that ... good advice if I had a time machine I suppose! They are adamant I can only have two more activations though :(

dont be silly .. airplanes cant fly in space .. so why model the universe :(

Unless they are part of Xenu's DC-8 fleet, in which case they can :( Al

Beware though, the copy protection is about the worst ever implemented, as a PC enthusiast I upgrade often, but even after the first upgrade I had to fight for a re-activation again, recently bought just a new graphic card to the rig that I use this sim for ... it detected new hardware and now I have to go jump through this company's hoops for another activation ... they told me (quite smugly) the last time I only have two more activations <----- a ridiculous state of affairs, my mate has the pirated version and here I am being punished for buying it :(I'm not a whiner, even the fairest of reviews of this otherwise great technical sim of the Shuttle missions gets negative comments on SimHQ about these issues ... its not a cheap sim either ... I'm going to think real hard about buying their forthcoming version.Apparently they have a less draconian version now copy protection wise ... and the reply I got last time from their customer support was ... I should have bought that ... good advice if I had a time machine I suppose! They are adamant I can only have two more activations though :(

Yup, I can't reinstall Space Shuttle Sim either, and it wasn't cheap. It's a great sim, but Simsquared (the developers) will be lucky if I ever buy anything off them again.Try Orbiter instead, at least they don't screw over legitimate buyers: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/Al

Back on topic though ... in the future 2050 will be a very different place, the Chinese economy will have vastly overteken the western worlds and we'll be seriously talking about a one world government, the US and UK and most European country's will be middle men rather than the large players we are just now, we'll see drastic changes in our energy using habits too, this was bound to happen.Flight sim wise ... we may be approaching a plateau just now and things will level off, for sure we cant sustain our current technological advances ... how long and how many times has AMD Bulldozer been delayed? I do envison more of us having highly realistic home cockpits though ... yes in 2500 there will still be real aircraft.2500 will (if we don't keep warring over natural resources) be an amazing time but their will be wise historian people who will look back at our cute quaint times and realise how good it is in the here and now and look back with affection at the great times we live in ... its a great pity most of us cant do this while we actually experience these times.I guess :)EDIT: Just to add to this, nobody will be any happier, we will always want for something ... as a species its in our nature.

In the year 2500 half of the people on Avsim will be saying that there is no point upgrading from FS2496.Got me thinking how much info would be available.FSX, released in 2006 has about 11GB of scenery data. The earth has approx 120 trillion square meters. If you do the sums then 1MB of scenery data represents a square measuring 104 meters on its sides. Based on Moores law etc and data doubling every 18 months then I get these calculations.In 2012 fs will take 176GB and 1MB of data will cover a square 26 by 26 metersIn 2018 fs will take 2.8 TerraBytes and 1 MB will cover a square 6.5 by 6.5 metersIn 2033 fs will take 2.9 PetaBytes and 1 MB will cover 20cm by 20 cmIn 2048 fs will take 3 ExaBytes and 1MB will cover a square 6mm by 6mmAt this point Microsoft will realise that there is little point going any higher with resolution and look at fixing the weather engine!

Moore's Law applies to computer hardware, not software.

Thanks for the tips on SSM2007 and its freeware alternative.The STS-ISS docking manoeuvers on SSM2007 look quite challenging!Cheers,- jahman.

But will my current addons work in the new version?!?!

Just an update re Space Shuttle Sim: this thread prompted me to try again with Simsquared's support, and they did send me another activation this time, so I'm presuming their support has improved a bit.Al