Iron Hill Project Thread

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Okay, guys: on Thursday we will set out on our final mission objective. Here is the schedule for the rest of our stay:
Oct 18: Excursion Tenacity. We'll drive to Grunwald Pass, then turn toward the Sun and drive as far into the daylight as we dare. I don't know how long the drive will take, as it will be up to the driver's judgement as to how far to go. Drivers will be: Felipi on the way to Grunwald, and myself on the way back. We'll try to accomplish the whole thing in one day, so we'll need to stay in contact. Important: Felipi, before we leave for Grunwald, please go aboard Odyssey and shut off the hover autopilot

Oct 19: The day before we leave Mercury, we'll do some basic housekeeping. RickD will set up the solar farm near the Iron Hill complex, then pass the scenario to me, and I will enter the Earth course into IMFD, and inspect Odyssey to insure she's ready for liftoff.


Oct 20: Departure. Using the course I have laid in, Felipi will take us home I'm going to run a simulation to determine the burns and other events we can expect on the trip to Earth. I'll post the data here soon.

Hard to believe this crazy project has hit the halfway point already :lol:. I realize my team is going to have to launch soon, so Ill have the Discovery package ready by the end of this week. On a different tack, Im going to need a finalized version of our payload manifesto by the end of October, so please speak up now. My suggestion for the mercury station would be to pick out meshes from SSBB that you like & diagram. If we can do that Ill code individual UMMU/UCGO dlls for each, carryable as Xr5 cargoes.

One more thing, I would like a recap of who we have left on the B-Crew.

 

[TMac3000]

Okay, here's what you're looking at so far:
Consumables (6 UCGO life modules): 20 metric tons
Lunar-style Rover (8 UCGO life modules): 21.5 metric tons
1 Hydroponics module (UCGO life module): ~2.8 tons
1 Lavatory (UCGO life module): ~2.8 tons

So, your cargo will consist of 16 life modules. 11 of these will be deleted on landing, and in their place you'll spawn a lunar rover and drive it into Rover Hangar 1. I'll start putting this cargo together soon. Also, the above does not include the weight/mass of the parts for Cheyenne Station, as we haven't quite agreed on a design for it yet. I'd like to use the design I showed you in the picture about a month ago, but I'll need some UMMU compatible station modules.

@ the A-Crew: I ran that simulation of the Earth return trip. It went surprisingly smooth compared to the wonky first weeks of the Mercury trip--we didn't even need an MCC until we were at the Earth SOI boundary! Liftoff occurred on Oct 20 at 14:54 UTC, then came a roughly 20 minute launch burn, and EOI on Feb 9, 2013 Felipi, you should have an easy time with this:thumbup:

Current B-Crew
Base Commander: Bruce Lawson
Geology 1: Rtyh-12
Geology 2: open
Solar 1: Samuel Edwards
Solar 2: SolarLiner

So we need still need one more person. I wanted to do a recruiting drive, but I can't think of anyone to contact who might be interested. Any thoughts?

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Okay, here's what you're looking at so far:
Consumables (6 UCGO life modules): 20 metric tons
Lunar-style Rover (8 UCGO life modules): 21.5 metric tons
1 Hydroponics module (UCGO life module): ~2.8 tons
1 Lavatory (UCGO life module): ~2.8 tons

So, your cargo will consist of 16 life modules. 11 of these will be deleted on landing, and in their place you'll spawn a lunar rover and drive it into Rover Hangar 1. I'll start putting this cargo together soon. Also, the above does not include the weight/mass of the parts for Cheyenne Station, as we haven't quite agreed on a design for it yet. I'd like to use the design I showed you in the picture about a month ago, but I'll need some UMMU compatible station modules.

@ the A-Crew: I ran that simulation of the Earth return trip. It went surprisingly smooth compared to the wonky first weeks of the Mercury trip--we didn't even need an MCC until we were at the Earth SOI boundary! Liftoff occurred on Oct 20 at 14:54 UTC, then came a roughly 20 minute launch burn, and EOI on Feb 9, 2013 Felipi, you should have an easy time with this:thumbup:

Current B-Crew
Base Commander: Bruce Lawson
Geology 1: Rtyh-12
Geology 2: open
Solar 1: Samuel Edwards
Solar 2: SolarLiner

So we need still need one more person. I wanted to do a recruiting drive, but I can't think of anyone to contact who might be interested. Any thoughts?

Hmm :hmm:

I was wondering if you would be able to mesh a couple of things? I dont see any real reason we cant just do consumeables as a reskinned oxygen box. I can mesh &/or texture new ones, if you like, as that would probably be less work, & the empty containers should provide some nice ambiance to the Iron Hill base. With regards to the Hydroponics & the John, having some new meshes for that would be nice. My only issue with our base is that it all looks the same... so much in fact, that I cant really tell if Im about to walk into another module or out an airlock when Im exploring :lol:.

By lunar rover, you mean non-pressurized? I have no objections to doing that if youre really into it, but why not leave the Odyssey Azure rover on mercury instead of taking it back to Earth? Seems silly to spend DeltaV carrying a vehicle all the way back to Earth, only to carry it back to mercury again (the second A-crew mission?)

If we can open up a few more cargo slots as well, I was thinking we can load up with lots of Surface Science cargoes.

Finally, whew , dont worry about finding UMMU/UCGO modules, just look through the various Spacecraft3 Station modules packages on OHM (Space Station Building blocks is usually nice), then let me know which ones. One of the nice things in ones pursuit of (programming), is that a lot of skills are easily transferrable between projects. If you get me the meshes, I can code Dlls for every single one, save maybe a robotic arm. I sense the best solution for all this is going to be a third IHP package on Orbithangar with all of the bells & whistles needed.

With regards to the crew complement, I think we can manage with 4. At this point, anyone really interested is probably already involved in our crazy scheme, pestering people to join wont help very much IMO.

Good luck with the return! :tiphat:

 

[TMac3000]

I have Blender handy, so I'll get to work on those meshes:yes: Yeah, I always have to zoom outside the base to see which way to go:lol: I've already completed the meshes for a mass spectrometer to go in the science lab, and some cots to go in the crew quarters. We can place the cots against the wall leading outside, so the only thing we'll have to figure out is who's room we're in I'm also going to mesh out a waste tank and some hydroponics tanks, to help identify the other rooms.

Now that I think of it, you are right about the rover. I'll have them leave it behind:yes:

And yes, we can use the extra room to carry more SSKs. We can do some adding on to the Scopas and Grunwald areas, as well as that trip to Bach you were talking about

I had already extended an invitation to Tacolev of the Deep Six Project to fill that last slot, before I read your post. If he says no, then we'll just proceed with the people we have. Hell, we've accomplished the A-Crew's goals with only three people:lol: (Mojoey dropped out, and Lydia just disappeared)

 

[TMac3000]

Good news: everyone please welcome Tacolev to the B-Crew:thumbup:
This completes the crew selection phase. I would like all B-Crew members to change their avatars to the Discovery Mission logo shown in the B-Crew social group.

Base Commander: Bruce Lawson
Geology 1: Rtyh-12
Geology 2: Tacolev
Solar 1: Samuel Edwards
Solar 2: SolarLiner

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Good news: everyone please welcome Tacolev to the B-Crew:thumbup:
This completes the crew selection phase. I would like all B-Crew members to change their avatars to the Discovery Mission logo shown in the B-Crew social group.

Base Commander: Bruce Lawson
Geology 1: Rtyh-12
Geology 2: Tacolev
Solar 1: Samuel Edwards
Solar 2: SolarLiner

Could we possibly avoid that? The logo I created doesnt scale well to avatar use, since its width allows for a very small pixel count. I would be satisfied if we could just get a post from each member, just to indicate that theyre interested/awake/not dead :lol:

Even better, why not just change the subtext under the screenname to read something related to the Iron Hill Project?

 

[TMac3000]

Even better, why not just change the subtext under the screenname to read something related to the Iron Hill Project?

I suppose I could live with that.

In fact, I'd like to start calling you guys something other than "B-Crew". It somehow makes you sound "second place", which you are certainly not. "Discovery Crew" comes to mind, but that's just the name of the ship. You might be flying on Odyssey someday

"Gold Crew" sounds a little too dramatic.

"Lawson Crew" I could live with, but I only get by with that because I know your last name--I'd have to call my team either "McCorison Crew" (that being my last name) or the "TMac Crew" which sounds weird.

Any other suggestions, or do we just leave the name unchanged?

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

I suppose I could live with that.

In fact, I'd like to start calling you guys something other than "B-Crew". It somehow makes you sound "second place", which you are certainly not. "Discovery Crew" comes to mind, but that's just the name of the ship. You might be flying on Odyssey someday

"Gold Crew" sounds a little too dramatic.

"Lawson Crew" I could live with, but I only get by with that because I know your last name--I'd have to call my team either "McCorison Crew" (that being my last name) or the "TMac Crew" which sounds weird.

Any other suggestions, or do we just leave the name unchanged?

Actually I like B-crew. That way, we can keep track of missions by A-1st Odyssey, B-1st Discovery, C-2d Odyssey flight & so on.

Anyways, I should have the Discovery package done by tonight, Ill post it if I can, but dont get everyone to install it just yet. The scenario file will need the config name changed, but that will make more sense to do when we release a full update package on OHM. I dont think Ill be available to do much more work until mid-next week, due to those pesky midterm things, but Id like to have your choice of station modules by then so I can get the code going.

Preliminary schedule I made up while not paying attention in physics speakers talk (I do feel a little guilty about that :lol:

Oddysey TEI: 20/10/12

Earth Ascent to Discovery: 01-10/12/12
Discovery TMI: 19/12/12

Discovery MOI: 03/04/13
Cheyenne Station Deployment: 03-06/04/13
Iron Hill landing: 06/04/13
Iron Hill base checkover: 06-13/04/13



Discovery TEI: 09/06/13

Discovery EOI: 23/09/13

Nothing like planning out a year of your life in 6 or 7 steps. I do have some concerns though. A, our ascent phase & TMI window has the evil genius to come right at the end of my exam window for this semester, so we may have to delay the ejection burn by a day. MOI and landing also seems to do that to my second semester too, so we'll just have to roll with the punches.

Greetings to Tacolev :hello:. Welcome to the club of people crazy enough to play Orbiter in real time!

 

[sorindafabico]

I have a crazy idea for the supply mission:

Instead of taking Chronus from Earth to LEO and Discovery from the Moon to LEO, how about take Chronus to the Moon?

I'll try to master the inverted reentry using XR5. Even if I don't have enough confidence at the moment of the mission, I still can aerobrake Chronus in upper atmosphere before a standard reentry.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

I have a crazy idea for the supply mission:

Instead of taking Chronus from Earth to LEO and Discovery from the Moon to LEO, how about take Chronus to the Moon?

I'll try to master the inverted reentry using XR5. Even if I don't have enough confidence at the moment of the mission, I still can aerobrake Chronus in upper atmosphere before a standard reentry.

Why do we need to take Discovery from the moon to the Earth? I thought Discovery was in Earth orbit.

 

[sorindafabico]

If the schedule is the same of Odyssey, Discovery must go to the Moon to get new hover thrusters before the supply missions.

Is it necessary or the new hover thrusters are already installed?

 

[TMac3000]

They are not installed yet, but I want to try and do it with spacewalks in LEO this time, to save delta-v. Recall my mentioning a November mission a while back. That's what that was about

If you're not crazy about that idea, we call still do a lunar mission, but if Discovery's going to have her hovers replaced on the moon, we sort of have to take Discovery to the moon...

---------- Post added at 04:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------

Why do we need to take Discovery from the moon to the Earth? I thought Discovery was in Earth orbit.

He's talking about what we did back in March, although he left out a step for brevity's sake...we flew Chronus to LEO and docked to Odyssey for crew and cargo transfer, then sent Chronus back home and took Odyssey to the moon, and a few days later we flew Odyssey back to Earth.

 

[sorindafabico]

I have no problem with doing all in LEO, the way you described seems more practical

 

[TMac3000]

Here's a pic and associated scenario file for the new Cheyenne Station--SSBB-based

You'll need:
2 BM-101s
2 BTank-201s (or a 201 and a 301, to distinguish water from oxygen)
1 BN-101
1 Dragonfly
Bruce, if you're still having problems with the Dragonfly, we can use a de-fueled Shuttle-D if you like (though that seems an undignified task for the SH-D's baptism of fire)

I still would like to find a way to add some solar panels to this thing:hmm:

 

[sorindafabico]

The CoG Shift tool of the Dragonfly doesn't work in Orbiter 2010.

 

[TMac3000]

Hmm...okay, but the DF is very small anyway, and it seemed to maneuver okay when I tried it...

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Here's a pic and associated scenario file for the new Cheyenne Station--SSBB-based

You'll need:
2 BM-101s
2 BTank-201s (or a 201 and a 301, to distinguish water from oxygen)
1 BN-101
1 Dragonfly
Bruce, if you're still having problems with the Dragonfly, we can use a de-fueled Shuttle-D if you like (though that seems an undignified task for the SH-D's baptism of fire)

I still would like to find a way to add some solar panels to this thing:hmm:

I like that, like the compactness of it :thumbup:.

Im really confused about this moon business, although I sense its related to the hover thrusters somehow?

Anyways, I did some looking, and how about using this [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5804"]http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5804[/ame] for our control module? It gives us UMMU compatibility, cargo carrying ability, a nice VC for views, and it seems to have solar panels from what I can see.

Im going to try to post the new Discovery package in a minute

 

[Tacolev]

Good news: everyone please welcome Tacolev to the B-Crew:thumbup:

Greetings to Tacolev :hello:. Welcome to the club of people crazy enough to play Orbiter in real time!

Indeed, I didn't want to leave you guys short a crew member and I should have a dip in personal responsibilities anyway once it's time for the B-Crew (B+ Crew?) to get underway.

This stated I'm going to be pretty intermittant for the rest of the month. I'll keep pace with developments in this thread but don't be surprised if I don't pop back on the radar until mid-november when it's time to get up to speed on things.:tiphat:

 

[TMac3000]

Im really confused about this moon business, although I sense its related to the hover thrusters somehow?

Back in March, we concluded that the hover thrusters on Odyssey did not have enough power to hold her up against Mercury's gravity, meaning that even if we could find some safe way to land her, she would never be able to take off again. We tossed around several ideas, and finally decided to have her put in to Brighton Beach for a replacement of the weak hovers. (IRL, we flew to Brighton, stayed there for a few days, and then I changed the config file to make them more powerful.)

I considered doing the same thing with Discovery this time around, but I figured it would save dV (and be somewhat riskier:shifty to do it by spacewalk, right here at home

Anyways, I did some looking, and how about using this
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5804
for our control module? It gives us UMMU compatibility, cargo carrying ability, a nice VC for views, and it seems to have solar panels from what I can see.

I'll give that a try But the list of required add-ons is getting really long...

---------- Post added at 06:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:33 AM ----------

Okay, I've deleted the rover from the payload requirements. Now we're down to 8 UCGO modules, plus the parts for Cheyenne.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

View attachment 10889

Heres the ship. The deal is as follows: I cant guarantee the stability of this method in any way at all, but I have used 3 of these at a time without any issues of any kind, so I wouldnt be too concerned about it causing crashes.