Orion's Arm Celestia Addons

The Orion's Arm Universe in Celestia

Celestia OA
Image from Steve Bowers
To explore the universe of Orion's Arm first download the 3D Astronomy program Celestia. The best results will be obtained by using the newest version, Celestia 6 currently in beta testing, available here:

Celestia-1.6.0.exe/download Once you have downloaded the program take some time to become familiar with the controls (this page from NASA shows the main functions very clearly).

To load the Orion's Arm addons you can download at least the first three of the OA Addons zip files shown below into the folder 'extras' inside Celestia
  • OA Addons zip 1 - this small file contains the locations information for the Orions Arm systems
  • OA Addons zip 2 - this large file (142 megs) contains the textures for the planets described in file 1. This may take some time to download.
  • OA Addons zip 3 - this medium-to-large file (34 megs) contains some of the Orion's arm spacecraft and habitats.
Unzipping these three files into the 'Extras' folder will create a subfolder called 'oaaddons'; this folder will contain several subfolders, and will be the home for all the Orion's arm material. More addons are available on this page: (Orion's Arm Addons Page 2)


Clickable Location Links

Once you have loaded these three files, you can explore the first of the Orion's Arm systems. The easiest way to do this is to click on a preset Cel:URL link, which will take you to a preset destination within Celestia. Cel:URL links are shown below in red; note they will not work properly until you have downloaded both Celestia and the appropriate addons.

Tip: you can have several different versions of Celestia on your system if you like, each with different sets of addons. If you have more than one version of Celestia these links may open the wrong version. So to ensure the links work correctly open the correct version of Celestia first. If you have only one version of Celestia. opening it first will help speed it up in any case.

Let's start with the Solar System; here is the cargo ship Almucantar, making its way through the asteroid belt. Clickable Cel:URL for this object


Ceres
Image from Steve Bowers
Ceres, the dwarf planet has a long established shipyard where many famous craft were built. Clickable Cel:URL for this object


Rosalind Franklin Gravity Tug ::
Image from Steve Bowers
Now to the nearest stars; the red dwarf known as Barnard's Star has a large asteroid belt, full of spacecraft and habitats. Sometimes it is necessary to move the asteroids in Barnard's Belt; here a pair of gravity tugs arranged in tandem are gently pulling this colonised rock to a new orbit. Clickable Cel:URL for this object


Tierra del Fuego
Image from Steve Bowers
Now to the system of Epsilon Indi; this is the terraformed world Tierra del Fuego, home of the famous cloned House Stevens. Clickable Cel:URL for this object
Other worlds in this system include Malvina and Deep Red
Praxis 2
Image from Steve Bowers
Epsilon Indi has two brown dwarf companions, both colonised by the Deeper Covenant; here is one of their habitats in orbit around the dwarf failed star Eps Ind Bb. Clickable Cel:URL for this object


Beamrider ship Communique
Image from Steve Bowers
The Deeper Covenant use the Beamrider system of interstellar travel; here is a beamrider ship spreading its magsail to catch the smart particle momentum beam. Clickable Cel:URL for this object


Darwin (Delta Pavonis)
Image from Steve Bowers
Orbiting the star Delta Pavonis we find the planet Darwin; this is an example of the rare class of worlds with indigenous biospheres, and is now protected by a Caretaker God. Clickable Cel:URL for this object

zarathustra
Image from Steve Bowers
The nearby star Gamma Pavonis holds the terraformed world Zarathustra, a world with a turbulent past Cel:URL
Ain Soph Aur
Image from Steve Bowers
The system of Delta Capricorni is the capital of the transapient empire of Keter, and is now known as Ain Soph Aur. Here is the Jupiter Node Sagan, a vast artificial world dedicated to data processing Cel:URL
Bolobo
Image from Steve Bowers
Bolobo is a small, paraterraformed world in the system HIP 107649; the atmosphere is retained by a transparent worldroof. Cel:URL
Ecotopia: the labworlds
Image from Steve Bowers
Ecotopia is the capital of the Zoeific Biopolity, and includes more than 300 artificial planets in a ring formation, each with a different experimental biosphere Cel:URL
Dyson Tree (celestia)
Image from Steve Bowers
In the Ecotopia system are many Dyson Trees, genetically modified space-adapted plants which are used as habitats Cel:URL
To'ul'h Prime with clouds
Image from Steve Bowers
The first intelligent alien species ever contacted was found on To'ul'h Prime, more than a thousand light years from Sol. This world has a hot, wet, thick atmosphere and is inhospitable to unmodified humans. Cel:URL
Ribblehead
Image from Steve Bowers
Ribblehead is a large, carbonaceous planet which has been transformed into a lo-tech reserve, while a high-tech City ring orbits and monitors the world from above Cel:URL
Deucalion1
Image from Steve Bowers
Deucalion is a Mars-like world which has been terraformed in much the same way as Mars itself. The world has a rich artistic culture. Cel:URL
Oikomene Dyson Swarm
Image from Steve Bowers
Zeta Serpentis (Oikoumene) is surrounded by a massive Dyson Swarm, mostly consisting of pyramidal processing nodes collecting the light from this bright star. Cel:URL
Panthalassa
Image from Steve Bowers
Panthalassa is a large waterworld, with oceans hundreds of kilometers deep; many water dwelling clades live on this world. Cel:URL
Lamorna
Image from Steve Bowers
Lamorna is a waterworld in the Zennor system; this was originally an ice ball moon, but has been artificially heated to support water dwelling life.
Cel:URL
Oshiq
Image from Steve Bowers
Oshiq is a postgaian world, rapidly losing its water due to a wet greenhouse effect. Here a Skylark-class ship orbits the world Cel:URL
Sisyphos2
Image from Steve Bowers
Sisyphos is a Chthonian type world, a gas giant so close to its star that it has lost most of its atmosphere. Only highly specialised clades can live here.
Cel:URL
Merrion
Image from Steve Bowers
Merrion (Alpha Mensae XII) is the capital world of the NoCoZo empire; a cold world covered in environmental domes and honeycombed with underground cities. Cel:URL
Corona (Iota Piscium I) was the capital of the Taurus Nexus; it is named for the brilliant aurorae which play almost constantly at the poles. Cel:URL
Guanche
Image from Steve Bowers
Guanche was at one time cut off from galactic civilisation and became a lost colony, with bronze age technology. Cel:URL However the world rebooted its civilisation with the help of the Encyclopedia Everythingiana.

Stanislaw
Image from Steve Bowers
Stanislaw is the site of a machine ecology. The origin of this mechosystem is still debated - it may be of alien origin, or the product of a wandering Terragen AI God
Cel:URL
Dionysos and pan
Image from Steve Bowers
Dionysos (56 Aurigae II) was the centre of the Dionysian Erotocracy, an influential early interstellar metaempire
Cel:URL
bill and bull
Image from Steve Bowers
The star Rana holds the twin planets Bill and Bull, and was the centre of the vanished culture Vore Abergism
Cel:URL
Oia
Image from Steve Bowers
The predominantly cyborg culture of Oia has developed new standards of beauty, not all of which are shared with other cultures.
Cel:URL
  • Fira, a planet in the Oia system, is near the star and tidally locked; a fierce asymmetric atmospheric rotation distributes the heat to the dark side of the planet
Cel:URL
New Earth2 - New Africa
Image from Steve Bowers
New Earth (104 Tauri) has been reshaped to resemble the original home of Humanity in the Solar System; however some details are different, such as the famous fjords of New Africa
Cel:URL
  • Daksha in the New Earth system is a typical jovian world, in approximately the same position as Jupiter occupies in the Old Solar System.
Cel:URL
Trees
Image from Steve Bowers
Trees (HIP 3170) holds an indigenous and complex biosphere, including gigantic tree-like organisms and the intriguing Pspyder species of near-sentient animals
Cel:URL
Harmonic Resonance
Image from Steve Bowers
Harmonic-Resonance (JD10013) is a double planet or Rocheworld, terraformed by Edenese superiors in 2805 a.t.
Cel:URL
Bourgatov3
Image from Steve Bowers
Bourgatov was at one time the capital of the Second Federation, but it was devastated during the Version War
Cel:URL
Blue
Image from Steve Bowers
Blue is a waterworld in the Seams, part of the widespread empire ruled by the Burdikeer
Cel:URL
New Root
Image from Steve Bowers
New Root is the capital of the Metasoft Version Tree; this world is not hospitable to unprotected humans, but suits the Moravec robots (Vecs) of that empire very well.
Cel:URL
Niuearth
Image from Steve Bowers
Niuearth is a human baseline reserve world in the Metasoft volume; the vecs of that empire like to keep a population of unmodified humans safe, for reasons of their own.
Cel:URL
Chrome Boxworlds
Image from Steve Bowers
The Metasoft Embassy in the Hiederia system is a strange and beautiful sight
Cel:URL Other worlds in this system include Redunin and Grishelda
The Chorus System
Image from Steve Bowers
The worlds of Chorus and Solo hold an alien chlorine-rich biosphere and is the home of the intelligent species known as the
Jade Chime Singers
Cel:URL
Muuhome ::
Image from Steve Bowers
Muuhhome is a Titan-like moon which was the first world where humanity encountered the ancient Muuh race; a slow, cold crab-like species
Cel:URL
Lancer's World
Image from Steve Bowers
Lancer's World in the Outer Volumes is covered by a space canopy plant ; this world also has an interesting transport infrastructure
Cel:URL
Pluton
Image from Steve Bowers
Pluton is a depleted ice core world, with a large strip of paraterraformed environment surrounding its equator. The red domes of several independent Muuh colonies can be seen.
Cel:URL
Audubon 2
Image from Steve Bowers
Audubon was the first world colonised by the Engenerator system a method which had some initial problems but has been used to good effect in more recent millennia
Cel:URL
Displacement Drive
Image from Steve Bowers
The Adriana Yue, a displacement drive vessel using high transapient reactionless technology
Cel:URL
Daffy
Image from Steve Bowers
Daffy is one of the seats of the Negentropy Alliance
Cel:URL

See Also

Orion's Arm Addons Page 2 and
Orion's Arm Addons Page 3 and
Orion's Arm Addons in Celestia page 4