AMSO Autopilots...

[EliNaut]

After fooling with AMSO and checking out all the features, I was very satisfied with how the P63 decent worked. I was wondering, is this available in any other interface, prefrebly an MFD, so I could implement it in other vessels? I've already got Base Land, Lola (Outdated, I know), I think Land MFD somewhere, and I think thats it... oh and I've given reentry MFD a spin but the lack of documentation left me confused on exactly how to use it.
The ones I just listed end up 90% of the time send me flying into the surface, biting moondust. :blink:

 

[RisingFury]

I just use the first page of ReEntry MFD and it's enough.

Set a target (Shift+T - you'll have to type the target).
You'll see 3 lines coming from the center of the gray circle representing the planet Earth. Green line is your current position, gray line is the prediction of where you're gonna hit the ground under current angle of attack. Yellow line is your target - Cape Canaveral.

Now, the ReEntry MFD only works under 200 km attitude because "there is where the atmosphere starts in Orbtier ".

Now, the way I do my reentrys... I use the Map MFD to wait until my orbit comes close to my target. Then when on approach to the target, when I'm 16 000 - 14 000 km away, I do my reentry burn. After that, I pich my nose up to around 40° AOA. Then I start looking at the ReEntryMFD.
At the bottom you have Dist. value. That indicates the distance from your landing spot and target (gray and yellow line). You're supposed to manouver your nose up or down to bring the yellow line right on top of the gray one. If you look at the distance value at that point, you'll see how far to the left or right you're gonna land. If the value is say... within 50 km, you're right on target
Even beyond that, you'll still be able to correct it right at the end of reentry.

Now, DGIV needs from 30 - 45° AOA to survive reentry. Less then that will pitch you down, more then that... you can't go. If you go, the air stream will pull you down really fast and possibly below 30°. Keep ajusting your AOA to keep the yellow line on the gray one. Then, when you're decelerating in the atmosphere, you'll come down to 1.5 km/s and around 20 km height. That's when you'll be around 200 km from your target. It's time to pich your nose down... use the airbreaks if you have too much velocity. Down't pich down too far... 1.5 km/s in thick atmosphere will heat you up too much.

My approach gives you a lot of spare energy to correct any unalignments.

Make sure to hit the atmosphere at a slope less then 1°. More then that and you're probably gonna die. You can decrease your slope by pitching your nose down to 30° AOA. That will give you more lift, recude the slope. Don't go below 0.4 cos that will slow your apprach down too much. You're still gonna have to pitch up to around 45° AOA later to compesate for the nose down you did


Anyways... I hope this helps some
I never read any documentation to cover the other pages... although I'm sure they're useful too.
I don't use autopilots... cos... space travel is empty as it is... don't wanna spoil the 10 minutes it takes to do the burn or reentry
Also, I try to use as few MFDs as possible... and only those that are easy to use.

 

[Belisarius]

RisingFury: I think you mean to say AeroBrake MFD, not Reentry MFD. And though your advice is very useful, it's for an Earth atmospheric reentry and the question is about moon landing.

LOLA works very well for most vessels on moon landing, if you have set up a reasonable PDI orbit beforehand.

For moon landings:
1) It's always better to insert into orbit retrograde than prograde, the velocity difference makes everything much easier.

2) The orbit before your final landing, drop your periapsis down to 8-12km over the spot where you intend to land.

3) This is where Reentry MFD will work for you. Click on the Target button at top left until it shows your target base. It is NOT an autopilot - all it shows is your descent rate and your required deceleration to reach the target at zero velocity. It also shows if you are left or right of the target. It won't do anything else.

4) If you need an autopilot, use LOLA. Click on the down button until you're on "Landing" and then the > button to select. Then the down button to the base you require and the pad, if there is a pad, then the > button to select, and again to activate. If your setup is more or less OK, LOLA will bring you in 90% of the time.

For a fully manual landing, try the following descent profile. It's from my analysis of the AMSO landing pilot and its performance. It is possible to land completely manually, but it takes a lot of practice and it can be very frustrating.

 

[EliNaut]

Thanks guys for the text - I'll give things another go after I get my comp all patched up(display driver keeps crashing horribly).

The thing about LOLA is that its meant for Orbiter 05, and of course most people have 06 now, and I have some confusion about how to use it. I select my target ok, my orbit usually is in the 50-80km range, but after that, it says "Waiting for Ignition", and none of the values, from my memory, indicate when exactly to do this, and most of my guess about when to do this is probably why I keep going ballistic into the surface.

I also usually minimize my autopilot use - if I can do it manually(which I can, its just I miss all the time ), I will, but when it comes down to it, and if I may semi-quote another orbitnaut, humans will almost never be as accurate with as high of a success rate as an autopilot, so where accuracy is vital, thats where ap's come in.

 

[RisingFury]

RisingFury: I think you mean to say AeroBrake MFD, not Reentry MFD. And though your advice is very useful, it's for an Earth atmospheric reentry and the question is about moon landing.

Me = Fail x 2 :lol:


Yea, I did mean AeroBrake...

And idk how I missed the Moon

 

[pattersoncr]

Thanks guys for the text - I'll give things another go after I get my comp all patched up(display driver keeps crashing horribly).

The thing about LOLA is that its meant for Orbiter 05, and of course most people have 06 now, and I have some confusion about how to use it. I select my target ok, my orbit usually is in the 50-80km range, but after that, it says "Waiting for Ignition", and none of the values, from my memory, indicate when exactly to do this, and most of my guess about when to do this is probably why I keep going ballistic into the surface.

I also usually minimize my autopilot use - if I can do it manually(which I can, its just I miss all the time ), I will, but when it comes down to it, and if I may semi-quote another orbitnaut, humans will almost never be as accurate with as high of a success rate as an autopilot, so where accuracy is vital, thats where ap's come in.

For LOLA, you'll recieve best results if you set up a good descent orbit before you engage the autopilot. I wait until I'm on the opposite side of the moon from the base (LON as close to 180 as indicated on MapMFD). Then burn retrograde until PeA is about 10km This retrograde burn was known as PDI (powered descent initiation) on Apollo flights. Engage LOLA after PDI.

 

[Belisarius]

Me = Fail x 2 :lol:


Yea, I did mean AeroBrake...

And idk how I missed the Moon

Hey, we all make mistakes, the important thing is you helped.

 

[RisingFury]

Hey, we all make mistakes, the important thing is you helped.

Hey! I even invented a new term doing so!

Orbital Fail! :lol:

 

[movieman]

After fooling with AMSO and checking out all the features, I was very satisfied with how the P63 decent worked. I was wondering, is this available in any other interface, prefrebly an MFD, so I could implement it in other vessels?

I believe it's a spin-off from Land MFD?

 

[Submariner]

I believe Land MFD is almost identical to the AMSO P63, isn't it? I've used it to land the DGIV with no problem. As other members said, you just need to do some work before you initialize it. Make sure you're in a low orbit, in plane with the target base, and that your ship is configured for landing (gear down, and in the DGIVs case, retro and hover doors on open, not auto) It's worked for me everytime. I'm sure it would work on any planet/moon with no atmosphere. I've yet to try it on Mars, but I suspect it wouldn't work well, and of course Earth is out of the question!