TiempoLibre Archives
Developer Celestia Interview
Interview with Chris Laurel, Founder of Celestia
Happy 2011 to all!
Thank you for choosing us on this special day, here on TiempoLibreSite.com and in our community.
Ladies and Gentlemen, today on TiempoLibreSite.com we introduce an interview with Chris Laurel, founder of Celestia.
Interview
TiempoLibreSite:
Who is the founder of Celestia? Age, name, native town and your job. We want some gossip.
Chris:
My name is Chris Laurel. I’m 36 now and was 30 when I started working on Celestia. I live in Seattle, Washington, USA, and work as a software engineer for NVIDIA, a graphics hardware company.
TiempoLibreSite:
How and why did you make Celestia?
Chris:
I love working with 3D graphics, but 3D graphics are primarily used for entertainment, such as games and movie special effects. I wanted to create something with 3D graphics that was more than just pure entertainment.
Also, I’ve always been interested in astronomy. Since the first extrasolar planet discoveries, I’ve wondered what the sky would look like from the surface of one of these newfound planets; Celestia can show me.
TiempoLibreSite:
Why the name “Celestia”?
Chris:
It sounded good — no other reason, really.
TiempoLibreSite:
What are the future objectives and developments of Celestia?
Chris:
Improved accuracy in positioning of solar system bodies. High dynamic range rendering for more realistic images of space. A better user interface so that Celestia is less confusing for new users.
TiempoLibreSite:
Why did you choose open source for your software? What is the advantage?
Chris:
Because Celestia is open source, many other volunteers have contributed to it. It wouldn’t be as good a program as it is now without the help of many other people.
Also, there wouldn’t be as many users as there are now. Educators especially seem to like that Celestia is free.
TiempoLibreSite:
For general talking: what do you think about Google Earth?
Chris:
It’s a great program! There are some features of Google Earth that I would like to incorporate into Celestia, but the two programs don’t overlap that much.
TiempoLibreSite:
What has been the best recognition for Celestia over the years?
Chris:
I’m very happy that groups within NASA and ESA are using Celestia for mission visualization.
TiempoLibreSite:
The Celestia project is famous around the world. Did you expect this success?
Chris:
No, not at all.
TiempoLibreSite:
How much time do you dedicate to your software Celestia?
Chris:
It varies depending on what other obligations I have. Lately, I’ve been spending about 20 hours per week on Celestia.
I tend to work on Celestia less during snowboarding season. 🙂
TiempoLibre Archives
Original interview published by TiempoLibreSite.com.