This MFD is designed to modify the mass of any vessel via a simple mechanism of changing the ratio of virtual mass to actual mass. The MFD is written in LUA and implemented through the ScriptMFD. The motivation for this MFD is to make the Arrow Freighter able to liftoff from Earth using its own hover thrusters. It has far more applications than this, which will be evident to anyone who has been looking for this functionality.
Â
REASON FOR UPDATE
Do not use this MFD with any other fully functional Script MFD. The update, setup, prestep, poststep, etc. functions are shared in the interpreter because MFD persistence is set for "vessel". The next major release of this MFD will use a DLL to overcome this limitation. Until then, make sure this is the only fully-function MFD in the list in the ScriptMFD.cfg file in Config\MFD\ScriptMFD.cfg.
POSSIBLE USES
o Allow vessels with normally insufficient hover thrusters to liftoff vertically.
o Modify effectiveness of drag on aerobraking/aerocapture by increasing/reducing mass.
o Reduce amount of thrust required to complete an orbital maneuver.
o Turn any vessel into one capable of constant thrust trips (see AGMFD on OrbitHangar).
o Test a vessel's aerodynamic configuration for stability under differing mass scenarios.
CREDITS
1) To my father-in-law for the name. It helps having a nuclear engineer at hand.
2) Star Trek: The Next Generation, Episode 61 "Deja Q". Want to move a moon that is in a decaying orbit around a heavily populated planet? Change the gravitational constant of the universe! What? You can't? Then expand the warp field around it in order to reduce its effective mass, then tractor it into a higher, circular orbit.
3) Artlav, developer of WarpDriveMFD Mk2 R1. The anti-gravity feature is what I had in mind when writing this MFD, but this was the only way I could think of to do it with a variable effect. I know better now! So that's my next MFD. (It will also allow variable effect.)
4) Willy88, developer of the Experimental Antigravity Device payload for the DeltaGlider-IV. This spawned the idea of using negative mass to reduce total vessel mass.
5) Martin Schweiger, developer of Orbiter. I've been having fun since Orbiter 2006, and the LUA interface has been a real window of opportunity to tailor the simulator even further.
REVISION HISTORY
1.0, 17 March 2011, Initial Release
1.1, 1 April 2011, Moved prestep code to do_MassModification() for readability. Documentation revision due to script interpreter limitations, and added mathematical background.
Â