User`s guide

Bending Space & Time 113
then the object inside the viewport is the
absolute closest object.
Direction of Spaceship: The numbers
along the top and left sides of the viewport
indicate your direction relative to the sun.
If you use the pitch and yaw keys so that
these numbers are both equal to 0, then
your spaceship will be travelling directly
towards the sun. If the number along the
left side is 0 but the number along the top
is 180, then you are moving directly away
from the sun.
Piloting the
Spaceship:
Hook
up your joystick
and give space-
ship mode a try,
or you can con-
trol the spaceship
using keyboard
commands. These
keys and their functions are listed in the
legend at the top left corner of the screen.
Once you become familiar with the keys,
you can hide the legend by pressing the F1
key.
If your keyboard does not have a numeric
keypad, you can use the following alterna-
tive commands:
Accelerate: A
Decelerate: Z
Roll left: Q
Roll right: W
Pitch up: Up arrow
Pitch down: Down arrow
Yaw l e f t : Left arrow
Yaw right: Right arrow
Pause/restart: P
Accelerate/Decelerate: Speed up/slow
down the spaceship.
Pause/Restart: Instantly stop the space-
ship. You might need to do this if you are
flying towards an interesting object and
are moving so fast that the object will dis-
appear from view before you can slow
down using the deceleration key. If the
spaceship is already paused, pressing this
key again will unpause the spaceship.
Roll, Pitch, Yaw: All of these keys change
the direction of your spaceship. Roll
rotates the spaceship, pitch shifts the
spaceship up or down, and yaw shifts the
spaceship left or right.
Joystick: Lets you know if a joystick is
plugged in.
Spaceship tips for the rookie pilot:
1
Practice your flying skills in the
vicinity of Earth first. Once you feel
comfortable with the controls, venture
out to other space objects.
2 If you want to fly towards a specific
space object, first use the Find pane to
centre on that object. You can then turn
spaceship mode on and fly directly
towards the object.
3 Slow down! As soon as an interesting
object comes into view, begin
decelerating. Otherwise, it’ll quickly
pass you by.
4 When flying outside the Milky Way
galaxy, point your spaceship towards