Question Apollo AMSO separation help

[TEAMdollabill]

Hello everyone, I downloaded AMSO 1.18 a couple of days ago. I can do everything rite except for when it comes to the part where you have to seperate and then redock to the lunar module. I know that I have to press "j" on the keyboard to separate but when is the rite time to do this? And how do I turn the ship around to dock? And how do i dock? And what do i do after this to get to the moon? Any help please thanks

 

[Woo482]

Please read the Read me I'm sure it explains all of this I would help more but I've not used AMSO for ages

 

[DanHawkridge]

Its 'J' to seperate the CM from Saturn V, then you spin the CM around and use linear RCS to dock with LM! You have to use IMFD to give you ship the extra thrust to intersect with the moon (TLI - Trans lunar injection). If you havent got that then its hard to work out where your supposed to be going! Id have a read up on Apollo missions forst because its quite confusing until you know what to do when! Good luck if you get confused then post again
Dan

 

[TEAMdollabill]

K Whats linear RCS?

 

[Kaito]

Translation RCS
I suggest you learn basic LEO operations (such as docking) before trying AMSO...

 

[Bj]

K Whats linear RCS?

Linear [LIN] RCS changes your relative position to another object. Instead of the vessels rotation [ROT].

 

[DanHawkridge]

Instead of using the little thrusters on the ship to change your attidute, you use then to thrust your ship left/right, up/down, and back/forward. Press '/' key on your numpad to do it! Have you got IMFD?

 

[TEAMdollabill]

Yep I have the 5.1 version

 

[Saturn V]

Download NukeET's scenario packs for AMSO:

http://www.orbithangar.com/advsearc...uthor=default&category=default&subcat=default

They're not tutorials, but besides being incredibly accurate, you'll begin to get the feel for when particular events occured in a mission if you fly a few of them.

Best mission scenarios I've ever seen.

 

[DanHawkridge]

You should have the step by step missions for Apollo 11, 13, and 17 which give you an idea what to do, and the manual for AMSO should clear up any obvious queries. I learnt most of my spaceflight 'stuff' from AMSO, its great for just about everything when you have smashed the DG up enough!

 

[MJR]

Oh geez. When you are done burning for TLI you need to separate the CSM from the third stage stack. The LM should be sticking out of the third stage. Switch to LIN thrusters and press the 9 key on the numpad to slow your CVEL. Switch back to rotational thrusters and press the 2 key on the numpad to flip the spacecraft so you can align your docking port with the LM's. I recconmend using the Dock MFD for this instead of trying to do this visually. Now you will have to slowly "creep" your way to the LM using LIN thrusters and then use the ROT thrusters to keep the CSM straight.

After that you will prepare for MCC when you are very close to the Moon. On your orbit MFD the main gravitational force should be the Moon's so that is when you know if you did the TLI right. It should be past G 0.50. Orient retrograde and preform a burn to park in the Moon's orbit. When you later reach your periapsis for the orbit you have established around the Moon do another burn so you decrease your apoapsis to a more eccentric one. Lets say at about 118km and your periapsis at 108km. There should be an AP for descent and ascent so that is basically it for the Moon phase of the trip. Hopefully this helps you out. If you got any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[kneejo]

I'm just doing this now and find the visual docking between the CSM and the LM to be easier than the docking mfd. Just make sure you turn around exactely 180 degrees and kill-rot. then rotate to align the red T on the white circle on the LM with the crosshair in the CSM upper-left window. then use translation to steer the ship in. using FOV of 20 makes this view easier. be sure to rotate the CSM before seperation in such a way that the sun lights up the docking-symbol, otherwise you won't see it.

when to do this? after lunar injection burn. then a little cheat: if you don't want to mess up your trajectory of the CSM, switch to the 3rd stage and give it a little translation push to the side, so it doesn't ram into the CSM when it burns the remainder of the fuel after 8 minutes. I know, officially you have to move the CSM, because no-one is manning the 3rd stage at that time, but I imagine they could have used some kind of radio controlled steering in those days.