Best Landing on the Moon Yet!

[RonDVouz]

As I've been doing lunar missions I wanted to give myself a sort of mission, not blindly flying there and landing with no purpose, I wanted to goal. So I set a target on the surface that I had to be reasonably close to and I chose the lunar pit in the middle of the Sea of Tranquility. The LRO satellite orbiting the moon has revealed the existence of some 200 holes in the surface, the most prominent one so far by all visual references is this one, appox. location 8.34°N, 33.22°E.

Now not having much reference to surface features other than the F4 map I had to devise a way to first estimate the location of the hole on this map (closest feature is the crater Sinas) and second find a landmark from where I needed to start retro burning. First attempt had a good trajectory over the landing area, my landmark was the crater Lawrence but I overshot the zone by 190 miles. The second attempt I tried moving up the start of the retro fire but overshot 170 miles. The third try I used a completely different landmark, the crater Watts, and landed 55 miles from the target. Honestly I thought that was about as close as I'd ever get.

I tried again, this time using a the crater Asada to begin my burn and I came to a near stop over the area, managed my decent and landed at 9.419N, 33.207E or approx. 1.5 miles from the hole, or in other words a BULLSEYE! :thumbup:

Even though the new hi-res textures for the moon are exponentially better than they used to be I was curious to know what my landing site looked like, in real life, so off to the LROC website for some more up close images.

Here is the LROC image of the whole site, the hole is centered on the bottom, my landing spot is a yellow dot near the top and a little left;

This is a close up (res down to 0.5 meters/px) of the touchdown site. Relatively smooth spot:

I'm still really excited about pulling this off. So has anyone else made their own lunar missions, or even Mars, etc. where you had a specific target?

Also I should mention that I've never tried landing on Brighton and actually choose to ignore it's presence on the surface.

 

[statickid]

Nice landing!

If you want to have a bit of fun with high quality terrain...

Set up AMSO with the CM+LM in lunar orbit. This will get the terrain to spawn on the moon.

Then Save the scenario.

Then paste any spacecraft or space stations you like into the same scenario.

Enjoy landing in beautiful highly detailed pristine terrain without having to use the AMSO spacecraft!!

Thats what I like to do when I want to do random lunar missions, I land on AMSO sites.

 

[RonDVouz]

*sigh*

Ah, ASMO. It doesn't like me, no matter what I've tried it doesn't load properly. This sounds like an amazing idea because landing on the regular surface is pretty dull. Probably what prompted me to look for the LRO pictures.

And thanks! This really was a breakthrough for my overall approach and landing on the moon. I'm still quite amazed that the trajectory was spot on, I simply approximated that based on looking at a map. Now I know where it is on the F4 map I want to see how much closer I can get.

Or look for a new hole to land near. :hmm:

 

[statickid]

I've never had any troubles with AMSO, did you put try it in a clean folder? get any kind of messages?

 

[RonDVouz]

I followed the basic "just unzip" instructions, used 7zip and kept the file paths straight. First time I don't see anything, no modules or vehicle config.....nothing. Second time I unzipped to the root folder and forgot to check the file paths but it showed up in modules and i could config the vehicle, but opening the sim it gave me a critical error message.

That attempt actually messed up my base install so even DG was getting messed up so I deleted it all and started fresh. Tried again, back to not seeing anything. I just tried moving the file's CONIF folders into the root file's CONFIG and still nothing.

So a clean folder? That doesn't corrupt the file paths? I'm willing to try anything at this point because I want to run ASMO so badly.

 

[statickid]

:hmm: Here are some quick suggestions from the manual:

ATTENTION !!! Some instruments’ modules are NOT compatible with AMSO. If you have a problem, like the Saturn V laying horizontally on the launch pad, or you experience numerous crash to desktop events, PLEASE DEACTIVATE ALL THE INSTRUMENT’ MODULES WHICH ARE NOT CERTIFIED FOR AMSO

- Don't even touch the mouse wheel inside any Virtual Cockpit, before to have changed almost once, the default camera direction (mouse move while keeping mouse right button pressed), or you will have an immediate CTD !!! This is an Orbiter bug I was unable to overturn. In fact, simply never use mouse wheel in VC as it simply do nothing, except crashing to desktop !!!

 

[RonDVouz]

Yeah, but the problem I have now is actually getting the module to load. It's in my root directory, it just doesn't show on my modules list.

In fact:
**** Orbiter.log
Build Aug 30 2010 [v.100830]
Timer precision: 4.46326e-007 sec
Found 0 joystick(s)
Devices enumerated: 4
Devices accepted: 3
==> RGB Emulation
==> Direct3D HAL
==> Direct3D HAL (Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family)
Module AtlantisConfig.dll .... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module AtmConfig.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module DGConfigurator.dll .... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module OrbiterSound.dll ...... [Build 121120, API 100830]
Module ExtMFD.dll ............ [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module Rcontrol.dll .......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module ScriptMFD.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module transx.dll ............ [Build 100824, API 100823]
Module CustomMFD.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module LuaMFD.dll ............ [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module ScnEditor.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]

**** Creating simulation session
DirectDraw interface OK
Direct3D interface OK
Graphics: Viewport: Fullscreen 1366 x 768 x 32
Graphics: Hardware T&L capability: No
Graphics: Z-buffer depth: 32 bit
Graphics: Active lights supported: -1
Loading 15382 records from star database
Module Sun.dll ............... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(E) Sun: Precision 1e-006, Terms 554/6634
Module Mercury.dll ........... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Mercury: Precision 1e-005, Terms 167/7123
Module Venus.dll ............. [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module VenusAtm2006.dll ...... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Venus: Precision 1e-005, Terms 79/1710
Module Earth.dll ............. [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module EarthAtmJ71G.dll ...... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Earth: Precision 1e-008, Terms 2564/2564
Module Moon.dll .............. [Build 100830, API 100830]
ELP82: Precision 1e-005, Terms 116/829
Module Mars.dll .............. [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module MarsAtm2006.dll ....... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Mars: Precision 1e-005, Terms 405/6400
Module Phobos.dll ............ [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Deimos.dll ............ [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Galsat.dll ............ [Build 100217, API 100215]
Module Jupiter.dll ........... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Jupiter: Precision 1e-006, Terms 1624/3625
Module Io.dll ................ [Build 100217, API 100215]
Module Europa.dll ............ [Build 100217, API 100215]
Module Ganymede.dll .......... [Build 100217, API 100215]
Module Callisto.dll .......... [Build 100217, API 100215]
Module Satsat.dll ............ [Build 100215, API 100212]
Module Saturn.dll ............ [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Saturn: Precision 1e-006, Terms 2904/6365
Module Mimas.dll ............. [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Mimas: Terms 113
Module Enceladus.dll ......... [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Enceladus: Terms 33
Module Tethys.dll ............ [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Tethys: Terms 101
Module Dione.dll ............. [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Dione: Terms 59
Module Rhea.dll .............. [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Rhea: Terms 68
Module Titan.dll ............. [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Titan: Terms 100
Module Iapetus.dll ........... [Build 100215, API 100212]
SATSAT Iapetus: Terms 605
Module Uranus.dll ............ [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Uranus: Precision 1e-006, Terms 1827/5269
Module Miranda.dll ........... [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Ariel.dll ............. [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Umbriel.dll ........... [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Titania.dll ........... [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Oberon.dll ............ [Build ******, API 060425]
Module Neptune.dll ........... [Build 100830, API 100830]
VSOP87(B) Neptune: Precision 1e-006, Terms 391/2024
Finished initialising world
Module DeltaGlider.dll ....... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module LuaInline.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module ShuttleA.dll .......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module ShuttlePB.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Finished initialising status
Finished initialising camera
Finished initialising panels
Finished setting up render state
**** Closing simulation session

 

[statickid]

I don't have these activated... maybe it's one of these?

Module Rcontrol.dll .......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module ScriptMFD.dll ......... [Build 100830, API 100830]
Module LuaMFD.dll ............ [Build 100830, API 100830]

 

[RonDVouz]

It's not those, it's the way it installed. Or didn't install. The folders are in the file, they're not getting recognized. I might try to reinstall a fresh DL.

Again. :|

What I'm thinking was this clean folder idea, this is how I did it: I saved the zip to the root folder, when I unzip I click "extract files..." and in the prompt window have selected "keep file paths". Maybe there's something wrong with the way I did it but for all the new textures that way worked.

How do I do the clean folder?

 

[statickid]

Oh i meant into an orbiter folder that has absolutely zero other add-ons, you know a freshly unzipped orbiter folder

 

[RonDVouz]

OH!

Damn, it took near forever to DL all those textures, I hope it wasn't that. But strange that those loaded perfectly but nothing else did.

I appreciate your input, I really do want to try it with the ASMO textures.

 

[statickid]

hrm... if all you have installed is textures, i never heard of textures mucking up AMSO. That's my experience anyways, others may have had this.

 

[RonDVouz]

Got it!

FINALLY!!!!! WOO HOO!!

I took the suggestion of DLing a mod generator and it works now. Now on to more mods!!