With less than 48 hours to go until the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission landing on the lunar surface, as expected, humanity let a historic opportunity pass by, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate in our own way. Besides reviewing classic details about the missions, why not reproduce them on your computer? All you need is a copy of Orbiter Space Flight Simulator and the add-on Project Apollo, which also includes those post-Apollo missions that never actually took place.
50 years of the Saturn V piercing the sky. 50 years since that small step for man. 50 years since what could be considered the end of the Space Race. Of course, humans traveled to the Moon six more times (with Apollo 17 being the last, in December 1972), but the underlying feeling remains the same: It's been a long time. Some say it will take another decade to return. Others are even more pessimistic.
Simulate the Return to the Moon
The best alternative is… to simulate the return to the Moon. We can do it in a more entertaining and less technically demanding way (say, Kerbal Space Program with its nearly indestructible astronauts), or try to reproduce the complete experience. For that we must download Orbiter Space Flight Simulator (which demands several days of training on its own) and the add-on called Project Apollo, loaded with all the Apollo missions and other very interesting extras.
No, friend, this is no Lunar Lander. Realism is the priority here, to such an extent that the standard Orbiter package doesn't include sound. For now, this simulator is exclusive to Windows, though nothing prevents you from trying your luck with Wine on Linux. One of the first recommendations is to install the high-resolution pack, and once that's done, it's time to add Project Apollo.
As you can see in the video (which is from 2016), the learning curve for Project Apollo and the simulator is… brutal. But if there's an advantage to all this, it's being able to end up as a blotch on the lunar surface without consequences. Give it a try, make mistakes, absorb the tutorials, try once more, and when you succeed, you'll celebrate for days (I did exactly the same with KSP).
The last two aspects to highlight about Project Apollo and Orbiter are that both elements are free and don't have outrageous hardware requirements.
Download Project Apollo and Orbiter
Project Apollo: Click here
Orbiter Simulator: Click here
