Project Obsidian - Outer Planets Explorer

[francisdrake]

Obsidian
Outer Belt Surveyor for Discovery, Imaging, and Analysis of Neptunian space

The Obsidian is an unmanned space probe to explore the outer Solar system. It is powered by a nuclear-electric bus, can be configured with different science packages, and can carry up to two landers. Addon Notes This is an early version, with cfg-file vessels only. Meshes are static, no special key commands are provided. The addon has 2 packages: Obsidian (the actual vessel and its landers) Helios (a Methalox kick stage, for Solar Orbit Insertion) Please download and install both. Key Commands of the Obsidian [E] Camera look forward or aft [G] Go ahead, change from stowed to active configuration ( ! ) [W] Wide angle camera, toggle, looks in the direction of the telescopes, orient ship retrograde The Apache landers are docked to the parent vessel. They undock with [Ctrl-D]. They are ‚belly-landers‘, having hover engines only. Recommended Addons FalconHeavy by BrianJ for the launch scenario. MicroTexture pack for close-up textures (install before this addon) Any hi-res textures of the outer planets and their moons.

Places to Explore

A geyser has been detected on Europas surface, near the Argiope Linea.
Can you explore it using an Apache lander?

 

[francisdrake]

Paying a visit to the Sulphur volcanoes of Io.
On the way into the Jupiter system had a near-miss with Europa at 100 x time acceleration. It whizzed by so fast I could not react.
The Jupiter system is a treacherous place to navigate.

Question: Are there addons of surface features on Moons of the outer planets?
I don't mean manned bases, but geographical features like mountains, cliffs, ice lakes, etc.
They would make visiting the Moons even more interesting, and give the landers some targets to explore.
Places like in the film Wanderers by Erik Wernquist.

 

[cosmonaut2040]

Question: Are there addons of surface features on Moons of the outer planets?
I don't mean manned bases, but geographical features like mountains, cliffs, ice lakes, etc.
They would make visiting the Moons even more interesting, and give the landers some targets to explore.
Places like in the film Wanderers by Erik Wernquist.

Unfortunately I don't know about any for the current version of Orbiter. For the older versions (e.g. Orbiter 2010) there were many, for example:

Addon icon

Lava lake on Io

Feb 7, 2010

Imported from OHM

• DagoO
• Scenery

Addon icon

Valhalla Landing Site

Apr 29, 2013

Imported from OHM

• joffrey
• Scenery

Also the Deepstar 2 addon included many landing sites, but it doesn't seem to be available any more in the addons repository.

 

[francisdrake]

Great tip, thank you! The picture above shows a lander incoming to the lava Lake at Io.
Unfortunately, the lander spun out of control before touchdown. May have to do how the height above ground is interpreted in Orbiter 2024 vs Orbiter 2010.
Will have a loser look into that.

 

[francisdrake]

Obsidian over Uranus moon Titania.

New version 01 can be downloaded in the first post of this thread.
The Osidian now got a dll and has few key commands.

[E] Camera look forward or aft
[G] Go ahead, change from stowed to active configuration (This is important to activate the reactor and main engines)
[W] Wide angle camera, toggle, looks in the direction of the telescopes, orient ship retrograde

Added scenario subfolders, named after the outer planets.

 

[francisdrake]

In dark nights use head lights!

New version Obsidian-02 can be downloaded in the first post.
The lander has now a dll. It can land on its touchdown points, but sometimes flips over when changing from freeflight to landed mode.
Landing lights can be switched on, the stowed high-gain antenna can be deployed.
There is some fuel reserve in the landers to allow for a few hops on the moon, exploring the surroundings of the landing site.

Included are landing spots on surface sites from Orbiter 2010., like the Io Lava Lake and Tolis Mons. They can be approached for landing, but on final my PursuitMFD goes crazy. Maybe this is because of inconsistent height-above-ground information.

Valhalla landing site on Callisto seems the work.
___
I would be grateful if someone could make a better scenario for a launch to Jupiter. The year is 2050. My scenario is way off course.

 

[Buck Rogers]

Very nice mission!
Taking a little break from modding I gave it a quick run-through. Looking really good!
Encounterd some issues.
One of the landers looks upside down/wrongly attached to the Obsidian?
When the Obsidian is deployed the landers disappear.
The Lander gets stuck to the ground! Needs aggressive maneuvers to dislodge, haven't seen anything like this before?
I tried HoverMFD but it doesn't really work either, although default Alt Hold and H Level autopliots work. Maybe because both Hover and main are synced?

Added metal shaders (also fixed the ASDS so the booster landing works), attached.

Works great with my Elev Europa Hi-res (no changes made).


Lander position?

There's also a SpecialFX matrial you could animate for the radiators?

Haven't flown a complete mission, when I have more time I'll take a look at the TJI