I'm sure many of you have used Distant Suns, an app that's been around for years. I keep it on my tablet mostly as an aid to viewing celestial events. Tomorrow's alignment of Saturn and Jupiter is what got me thinking.
The app has the incredible ability to display what's going on in the cosmos, with the position of all the known, major celestial bodies - as they exist or will exist at any given date and time, past and future.
It would be a triumph, I think, if something of this sort could be a feature of SR2 in RSS mode. That way, we could set up and execute deep space missions - past, future and imaginary - utilizing the special planetary alignments without which they would be difficult or impossible. The gravity assist maneuvers that SR2 makes possible are lots of fun, but we don't yet have the tools to link them up as required to reach the outer system using realistic delta V budgets.
How cool would it be to dial up September 5, 1977 and simulate the launch and mission of Voyager 1? Something to think about, yes?