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#3065985 - 08/03/10 04:35 AM Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS  
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Pinetree Offline
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New Zealand
I thought I'd post some pics and a general commentary of my first mission in Orbiter.This mission is one of the checklist missions where you fly the DeltaGlider from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station.

I've had a bit of a play with Orbiter before but that was mainly sight-seeing but with the new version out I thought I'd give it a real go. I followed the tutorial that comes with the sim and also another one that I downloaded from the net. As this was a learning mission I would save before each event and if I screwed it up too much I would reload.

On the runway at the Cape waiting for clearance:



I waited on the runway until the correct time and took off with full engines.Gear was raised and I banked right until I hit 140° then pitched up 70° and went ballistic.



At 30km Altitude I enagaged the RCS system as the atmosphere thinned and pitched down to 20°.



I switch one of my MFDs to Orbit mode and wait until the Apogee radius hits 6.731M then kill the main engines. I was actually over that a bit but it didn't seem to matter to much. It is then a case of waiting until I hit apogee (The highest point of orbit) and then doing another burn until my perigee radius matches apogee. I also wanted eccentricity of the orbit to be very low:



After the burn: (this took me a couple of goes to get this close biggrin )



Next up was aligning the orbit plane with the ISS....



Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#3066028 - 08/03/10 07:26 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Pinetree]  
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Pinetree Offline
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Next it was time to align orbital planes, to do this I used the align plane MFD.I had to get the inclination( or the difference in orbits in degrees)down to no more than 0.05°.To do this I had to point the ship at 90° perpendicular to my orbit plane and wait until I reached a node.These nodes are Ascending and Descending.Which way I turned the ship depended on the node.Here I was approaching the Ascending Node so I turned it anti-normal.



Then it was a case of waiting until the rectangle at the bottom of the MFD said Hit Thrust and hold it until It said kill thrust.In my case I didn't get lower than 0.05° so I had to wait until I hit the next node and turn the ship to normal attitude.

Rotating in the dark for the align burn:



Align plane burn:



Night time in the Malayan Peninsula:



Approaching the terminator:



Off the West Coast of North America about to do my next align burn (This sim makes some gorgeous images):



This burn was successful, next up was intercepting the ISS.

#3066059 - 08/03/10 09:48 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Pinetree]  
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Pinetree Offline
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Pinetree  Offline
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I switched a MFD to Sync Orbit. This allowed me intercept the ISS.I had to match up one orbit in my ship's time to rendevous (Sh-ToR) to one orbit in the target's time to rendevous (Tg-Tor)with a delta time minimum as close to zero as I could get. I got there on the third try, my first time gave me such an eccentric orbit that when I time-compressed I bounced off the atmosphere. biggrin



One of my many approaches.The dotted line is the approach path for the dock.





Getting closer...



..and closer...



...a bit more closer...



...even closer now....



...and overshot. banghead



Just about lined up. This was about my tenth or so attempt.It's a bit of a dance really.



Only 50 m to go and my docking crosshairs are lined up perfectly..



The ISS looms out of the darkness..



Docked! Finally!!



ISS and DG over the North Island of New Zealand. I can almost see my house.



I had an absolute ball with this, it was the first time in a long I've pulled an all-nighter with a game.I'm going to try the next mission soon which is an orbital transfer from ISS to Mir (Yep, it's still up in Orbiter space). Probably not tonight though as I need the sleep! biggrin

#3066063 - 08/03/10 10:16 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Pinetree]  
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That's very neat!

#3066071 - 08/03/10 11:02 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Smithcorp]  
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Orbiter is a great simulation, and it's amazing how much more fun and satisfying it is to actually accomplish something, as opposed to just stuffing around.

The first earth - orbital object I did was with a couple of mods, flying a Star Wars Shuttle up to a Star Destroyer. It took me rather a long time, and I don't think Vader would have been impressed...

#3066082 - 08/03/10 11:39 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: FlyingToaster]  
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Lifer
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Very interesting report. I likley don't have the patience for learning this, but it sounds pretty impressive.

#3066084 - 08/03/10 11:42 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: FlyingToaster]  
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Paul Rix Offline
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That was a great read Pinetree. Thanks for taking us along on your trip into orbit thumbsup... I think I need to give it a try myself sometime.


Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
Carl Sagan
#3066326 - 08/03/10 07:26 PM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Paul Rix]  
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Heretic Offline
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I suddenly have the urge to go and do some of NASA's historicals...mid to late Gemini or early Apollo.

Nice AAR!

#3066406 - 08/03/10 09:48 PM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Heretic]  
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letterboy1 Offline
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Lifer

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Pinetree, how do you get it to look so good? I've messed around with this several months ago ut wasn't sure which graphics settings and addons make it look that good.

As for your AAR, please make another when you complete your next mission. And as a fan request, I would ask you to perhaps create a series of AARs based on a complete Shuttle run from launch to landing.


The issue is not p*ssy. The issue is monkey.
#3066632 - 08/04/10 09:08 AM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: letterboy1]  
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Pinetree Offline
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Pinetree  Offline
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Thanks everyone for your comments, if it gave anyone the urge to get into it then I'm glad to have helped biggrin.

Originally Posted By: letterboy1
Pinetree, how do you get it to look so good? I've messed around with this several months ago ut wasn't sure which graphics settings and addons make it look that good.


I've got all options ticked in the visual effects tab. The only graphical addons I'm using at the moment are the ones found here.

Quote:
As for your AAR, please make another when you complete your next mission. And as a fan request, I would ask you to perhaps create a series of AARs based on a complete Shuttle run from launch to landing.


I'll definitely do the remaining checklist missions but the missus and baby daughter are back tomorrow so time's going to be limited again. biggrin I've only just started with Orbiter so a Shuttle Mission a fair way off.

#3073752 - 08/14/10 11:44 PM Re: Orbiter 2010 - First Successful Mission - DeltaGlider to ISS [Re: Pinetree]  
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Coot Offline
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letterboy1 have a look at the site again. Orbiter 2010 came out recently. One thing I notice off the bat is the nicer looking stars and default high rez earth. Plus I think and update is coming soon that will add other light sources instead of just the sun. Saw a picture of the XR-2 Ravenstar lighting up a spacestation with a spotlight.


John 10:1-30
Romans 10:1-13


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