Hey Steve,
I just got to thinking about all the new code you're likely already writing, and the additional that you'll need to write, for the Newtonian reboot of Aurora I, and how once it all works you're likely going to want to port that over to Aurora II. I wondered if you've considered doing all your greenfield development for BOTH revs of your software in modern VB or C# libraries? Interop between VB6 and . NET assemblies is tricky but not impossible, and if it meant you could leverage new stuff like better installer code and newer interfaces/abstractions maybe it'd be worth the challenge to consider this approach.
hxxp: msdn. microsoft. com/en-us/vbasic/ms788241
hxxp: www. vbrad. com/article. aspx?id=46
If you refactor your code for, say, movement and intercept and fuel consumption calculations, or your basic system- and galaxy-generation algorithms so that certain pieces of it are implemented in . NET libraries, you could possibly wrap and invoke them from your VB6 environment and from the newer Aurora II CLR runtime.
Anyway I'm just wondering if you've given any thought to a sort of gradual movement away from VB6 for new development work, since I'm really intrigued by all the new work you're doing for the Newtonian mechanics but part of me is thinking "it's a shame this is going to have to be redone all over again for A-II. "