OFSS IV-discussion thread

[Interceptor]

Hope you have a speedy recovery Castor

[kamaz]

Oh that's terrible. Get well!

[Shifty]

Been trying out the missions. Mission 1 was pretty trivial, though fun to watch the launch. I'm currently working through mission 2; doing reasonably well so far. (I left the Themis attached for the first dock to help with visual orientation.) Love the Red Sea in the background of this shot.



I noticed that you could dump about 40% of the scram fuel before takeoff and save yourself some weight (though there's plenty of fuel for the mission.)

Curious if it's normal for the RMS arm to grab the center of mass of the object instead of the exterior of its mesh. It does make it easier to manipulate, but hurts my eyes when it passes through the surface.

I had a curious situation where the node I attached docked to the core module fine, but then kept slowly slipping through the mesh of the core over the next few minutes. I used scenario editor to un-dock and re-dock it and it's fine now.

I did some orbital assembly in KSP. This is actually pretty similar. Fun stuff; thanks again for putting this together Castor!

[ADSWNJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shifty

 Been trying out the missions. Mission 1 was pretty trivial, though fun to watch the launch. I'm currently working through mission 2; doing reasonably well so far.

Good news that you're getting through the missions ok.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shifty

 Curious if it's normal for the RMS arm to grab the center of mass of the object instead of the exterior of its mesh. It does make it easier to manipulate, but hurts my eyes when it passes through the surface.

Yeah - it's normal, and yeah, assume there's some magic going on there when the arm digs through the million $$ skin of those modules (and when the arm comes back up leaving no hole)!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shifty

 I had a curious situation where the node I attached docked to the core module fine, but then kept slowly slipping through the mesh of the core over the next few minutes. I used scenario editor to un-dock and re-dock it and it's fine now.

I wonder if this was an orientation issue? I've always wondered if the port rotation alignment has to be good for a docking, the same as a vessel docking. Good use of the Scenario Editor to complete the dock though.

[Shifty]

Finished mission 2. Every time I'd add a module to the first node, it kept shifting through the core mesh again, and I'd have to undock it and redock it. But, no problem, got the station finished.

I de-orbited the XR5 completely unpowered (using Aerobrake), hit the runway a little fast and broke off the landing gear (minor crew injuries), but otherwise everyone's fine. Gotta remember to flare a little bit more on the landing. (Might also have helped to dump my main fuel in orbit, but I wanted a reserve in case I undershot the landing site.)



I've discovered the key to non-spherical gravity is to just wait until the last minute (the preceding orbit or node) to make adjustments.

[PhantomCruiser]

Nice! You hit the runway! I usually dump most of my fuel shortly after the deorbit burn, that helps a bit, and the XRs can glide quite a bit. I can't count how many times I've broke the gear, all I can say is practice-practice-practice.

[ADSWNJ]

What's the current status on the OFSS IV project? Who's waiting for what?

[kamaz]

I think everyone's waiting for Castor to come back. Or for Castor telling us that we can continue without him for now.

[Shifty]

Are we waiting now for Artlav (or Athena) to land the XR5?

[ADSWNJ]

OFSS IV Comm Check...

Hoping this project isn't dead