Project Another Apollo Project

[Hlynkacg]

I apologize for the lack of updates but work has been slow of late. In the mean time here's a teaser for what I've been working on.

 

[Linguofreak]

I just stayed up way too late doing a shakedown flight for a Velcro SIVb with a docking port added (for the purpose of making sure I'd gotten the geometry of the docking port more or less right).

I plan to attempt a Manned Venus Flyby with AAPO in the next few days.

 

[Churchill2004]

I love the textures on this Apollo CSM. It reminds me of the "Ironman One" Apollo depicted in the movie "Marooned"

 

[Linguofreak]

I did a manned Venus flyby with AAPO Sunday night. I wasn't quite sure how to eject the SLA panels, so they're still on the SIVb throughout the flight.

Anyways, I'd been wanting to do a manned Venus flyby for some time, and wasn't sure how easy it would be do it with AMSO or NASSP, so I was quite delighted to find AAPO. :thumbup:

During the TVI burn:



Departing from Earth:



Another departure shot, with both Earth and the moon in the background:



Periapsis of the Venus flyby:



After more than a year in space, the CSM separates from the SIVb a few hours before reentry at Earth.



I have another screenshot of the CSM separation with Earth in the background. Unfortunately, the Venus -> Earth leg of the flight approaches Earth from outside its orbit, so the lighting is horrible and I decided against uploading it.

BTW, is there a more complete list of key bindings for CSM functions (especially stuff like parachutes)? The panel documentation says that all the functions listed are working, but the buttons themselves don't seem to work. I was able to find one or two key bindings for functions listed as being triggered by panel buttons by trial-and-error, and they do work when triggered by keystrokes, but not from the panel. But I wasn't able to find a complete list of key bindings in the documentation.

EDIT: I figured out parachute deployment, but I haven't been able to figure out apex cover jettison (other than what happens automatically with LES operation).

 

[Hlynkacg]

So I haven't worked on AAPO for the last few months due to difficulty in school (Material Sciences kicked my ass) and finding myself unemployed. (Job hunting sucks).

But on friday I felt the need to scratch my Orbiter itch and the result was an overhauled RCS control program for the LM. There are still some stability issues to be worked out but expect a fresh release soon.

 

[Linguofreak]

(Job hunting sucks).

Amen!

 

[Izack]

Good to hear it's still alive! Not so good to hear about the reasons for the setback, though. Best of luck with the classes and job hunt!

 

[N_Molson]

You might want to jettison those SLA panels before the TPI burn, as they are dead mass. Nice flight anyway :thumbup:

 

[Hlynkacg]

You might want to jettison those SLA panels before the TPI burn, as they are dead mass. Nice flight anyway :thumbup:

The CADs failed to fire. it's a known bug

 

[Linguofreak]

By the way, I mentioned it in the post on my Manned Venus Flyby, but is there any keyboard shortcut for jettisoning the CM apex cover? (And, in general, a complete list of key bindings for implemented functions, as the CM panel doesn't seem to work).

 

[Hlynkacg]

(And, in general, a complete list of key bindings for implemented functions, as the CM panel doesn't seem to work).

It's on the to-do list.

:compbash2:

:sos:

So...

Overhauling the LM's RCS control code and laying the ground work for future launch and landing Autopilots means that I need a way to interface with those autopilots.

This mean I need acesss to the DSKY on panel 4 that is currently covered by the MFD. Also, while having the MFD on panel 4 made sense from a logical design aspect it made it really annoying to use in game. As such I have decided to depart from the historical LM's cockpit layout by adding 2 additional panels. One above each of the forward windows. Each panel will house 2 switches, 4 knobs, a number-pad, and a big-ol-primitive mono-color CRT.

There are no textures because this was just a quick test build to make sure that the MFD will be readable. The Number-pad will go in the empty space to the left (or right for the LMP) and be mapped to the MFD's "soft-key" functions

 

[Linguofreak]

It's on the to-do list.

I assume you mean panel buttons being tied to functions? I can do happily without a working panel if key bindings are documented (in fact, I spend most of my time in glass cockpit mode unless a ship explicitly requires interaction with a 3d or 2d cockpit for some functionality).

 

[orbitingpluto]

Great to hear your back at it, and awesome news about the MFDs in the LM. While the problem with the CM's VC persists, AAPO is the centerpiece of the one of my Orbiter installs, and has been occupied a fair share of my thinking for a while. If you got a fix for the VC or want a tester, call on me.

 

[Urwumpe]

If this is going to be a CRT, you might better want to move it a bit further inside - those old charactron tubes had been quite long, because of the character matrix (for displaying text) and the additional deflection and collimination stages. Usually, such a tube was much longer than wide, the small Space Shuttle CRTs had been about 50% longer than wide.

A 21" Charactron display had been 6 feet long!

Ultra-slim CRTS had been an invention of the 1990s.

 

[4throck]

I have no problem with the "alternative reality" tech. The CRT itself is not that out of place if we think about the 70's. If they upgraded the Apollo hardware, certainly something like that was plausible. They did have handheld CRTs in Space 1999 ;-)

 

[Hlynkacg]

I assume you mean panel buttons being tied to functions? I can do happily without a working panel if key bindings are documented (in fact, I spend most of my time in glass cockpit mode unless a ship explicitly requires interaction with a 3d or 2d cockpit for some functionality).

Yes, though proper documentation also needs to be done.

If this is going to be a CRT, you might better want to move it a bit further inside - those old charactron tubes had been quite long, because of the character matrix (for displaying text) and the additional deflection and collimination stages. Usually, such a tube was much longer than wide, the small Space Shuttle CRTs had been about 50% longer than wide.

A 21" Charactron display had been 6 feet long!

Ultra-slim CRTS had been an invention of the 1990s.

The MFD is a 8 inch screen and the "box" containing is 9.5 inches deep and positioned it in such a way that it does not stick out of the actual hull.

Is it 100% realistic? No. I am aware that CRTs like this are anachronistic technology for the Apollo-era but I'm trying to balance historical fidelity/atmosphere with making the vessel accessible to the basic Orbinaut.

Great to hear your back at it, and awesome news about the MFDs in the LM. While the problem with the CM's VC persists, AAPO is the centerpiece of the one of my Orbiter installs, and has been occupied a fair share of my thinking for a while. If you got a fix for the VC or want a tester, call on me.

Thank you for the kind words, and will do. :tiphat:

In the mean time here's the new MFD with some textures applied...

---------- Post added at 10:57 ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 ----------

Thanks to meson800 in this thread here...

My cockpit handler is now much more intuitive and easier to edit/maintain. It is also configured in such away that it can be "dropped in" to any vessel derived from my "AAPO_Vessel" parent class and with some minor effort any VESSEL3.

This should make work go a lot faster...

Currently in work...
"Pulse mode" for LM RCS thrusters and converting existing functions over to new format.

 

[Linguofreak]

Yes, though proper documentation also needs to be done.

In the meantime it would be really nice to know what the key combo for apex cover jettison is (and actually for the parachutes too, I'd figured it out with random key-jabbing, but have since forgotten).

The MFD is a 8 inch screen and the "box" containing is 9.5 inches deep and positioned it in such a way that it does not stick out of the actual hull.

Is it 100% realistic? No. I am aware that CRTs like this are anachronistic technology for the Apollo-era but I'm trying to balance historical fidelity/atmosphere with making the vessel accessible to the basic Orbinaut.

The first thing I'd recommend there is to make it flyable from the glass cockpit alone: at least one scenario has the RCS and engine switched off at scenario load, requiring several switch flips to get the spacecraft into working order (and I'm never quite sure if I'm flipping unnecessary switches or not flipping one I need), though everything seems to be working for the moment after flipping the switches that I do. It would be good to have a key combo or two that automatically sets the panel to an appropriate state for a given stage of flight (probably one key combo to set up descent, and another for abort/ascent).

Once it's flyable from the glass cockpit, you could make the 3D cockpit entirely historically focused and let basic Orbitnauts use the glass cockpit, or you could offer two variations, one with fairly historically accurate Apollo era avionics (DSKY, etc) and no MFDs, and the other being an "Apollo Applications Project" panel with the stock Orbiter MFDs representing whatever avionics upgrades would have been received if the Apollo program had continued.

 

[Hlynkacg]

I was actually considering making a "simple" flight model where prop and thruster management would be handled entirely off screen.

 

[Tycho]

Nice work and great to see that the project is still alive. I really like the CRT idea and see no issue with realism (or lack thereof). Had Apollo not been cancelled, I think something similar to this would have been developed (with the CRT's and other Shuttle-era gadgets) eventually as part of the Apollo Applications Program. Apart from that, I really like the 70's/80's retro, golden-age feel.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to where this goes. Good luck with school and the job search as well! :thumbup:

 

[4throck]

...
or you could offer two variations, one with fairly historically accurate Apollo era avionics (DSKY, etc) and no MFDs, and the other being an "Apollo Applications Project" panel with the stock Orbiter MFDs representing whatever avionics upgrades ....

Agreed, but perhaps too much work. The upgraded cockpit with the MFDs is the way to go.

What we need are classical MFDs. It's perfectly possible to have MFDs that display gauges, pointers, etc, etc. ...