Idea Delta Glider V Ideas?

[Acepilot]

I suggest extended range past Jupiter and beyond!

I'll try to think of more ideas.

 

[pete.dakota]

I suggest extended range past Jupiter and beyond!

I'll try to think of more ideas.

Have you tried increasing the fuel efficiency in the DG editor? The DGIV can escape the solar system with the max setting.

 

[pilotpercy]

ive been earth > saturn > titan > neptune> earth in the DGIV on max everything (apart from the chicken modes) and made it back ok

 

[Master of Blades]

I've been Earth > Mars (landed) > Saturn > Titan (landed)

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

The DGV needs to go bigger, or smaller. either way would be good.

The DGV could be a smaller version of the DGIV, it only holds the pilot and cargo.

The DGV could be a larger version of the DGIV, it could hold more crew made for longer trips, and carry more cargo.

Either way cargo is the only part that needs to be worked on:

1.) The cargo needs to go both ways, example: You take Mining Supplies and/or food to the moon, get "moon rocks" or something to take back to earth... instead of taking mining supplies and/or food to the moon, and go back empty handed EVERY TIME!

2.) The satellites that are supposed to take pictures, wait get this... Actually take pictures which are sent to the nearest Prelude Base, where you could make an MFD to look through them. THAT WOULD BE SWEET!

3.) Easier to deploy satellites, with the ummu is ok, but seriously it would be nice if you had easy to remember codes for activation! I get sick of writing them down every time I lose my sheet that had them...

4.) Maybe the cargo could do stuff? You know, dock with a non-earth prelude and help it do something, maybe a container of full mining tools and supplies will be emptied then refilled with ore from the specific planet. Kinda goes with number one...

5.) Five and Final: General new cargos I would like to see:
Food, Coal, Moon Rocks, other ores, different equipment, and more sats... even if they do the same thing it would be nice to have different looking ones.

 

[pilotpercy]

how about a scientific equipment payload? you could land on a planet deploy the cargo then use ummu to open the container and take core samples, dust, solar wind readings etc which could all be loaded back into the cargo bay into a waiting container?

 

[penlu]

The cargo has zero interactivity.

 

[tonykattvc]

Scramjets and more autopilots! (I don't really know if this goes in here, but i would like a turbopack built into the UMmu!) Either the cargo bay has to get bigger, or it has to be taken out!

 

[Cornflake]

Dan has always said no to a VC.
More APs??? What is left for you to do? (besides, there is LandMFD)

Dang, the only thing I can really think of that the DGIV doesn't already have is a virtual cockpit. Although, I must admit, an arm like the Shuttle would be super :speakcool:too.

And, LandMFD is only for non-atmospheric bodies I thought? Well either way it can be a bit... buggy at times. It would be super sweet to have a re-entry AND land program for the DGV with presets for all the planets, so you no longer have to dread the reentry and landing phases of your missions to other planets.

Making the next DG larger would be pretty sweet... I've always wanted a decent large-scale Glider (the DGEX lacks power, it's not really fun to fly). The XR2 Ravenstar looks like it will be pretty sweet though.

 

[n72.75]

configureable cargobay; exempla gratica: the standard cargo bay, or a docking port, or some inflatible habatat, or a scientific platform. all with some sort of interface with the computer.

more functionable antena: maby send mesages or remote commands between DGV's.

thats all

-n72

 

[tonykattvc]

configureable cargobay; exempla gratica: the standard cargo bay, or a docking port, or some inflatible habatat, or a scientific platform. all with some sort of interface with the computer.
-n72

there is an inflateable capsule which can hold 6 ummus, it has a docking port, a door that ummus can go through, and more. It can be found here: http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php?disp=dgIVMore&DId=145.


-----Posted Added-----

I want UMMU support :rofl::rofl::lol::lol:.

The thing already has ummu support, the dgIII had it!

 

[tonykattvc]

going from the idea of the turbo packs (amazing btw) how about a version of the DGV with a small UMMU compatable vehicle like the lunar rover that can be deployed? most of the exploring i do is with the turbo packs but a buggy could increse range and contain equipment, maybe even a couple of turbo packs lol

There's an addon which will put a little UMmu compatible rover in the cargo bay, you can find it here: http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php?disp=dgIVMore&DId=170.

 

[Woo482]

wow people still use my rover hears an other link for it [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3430"]Woo482's manned mars rover[/ame]

 

[RisingFury]

Well, first of all:

Awesome work on the DG IV!!!
Of all the craft I've flown for Orbiter, this is definitely my favorite!

I totally disagree with the person who said it lacks lift and is bad as a glider. It glides and handles like a dream... and landings are pretty nice with it. I think that as far as it's aerodynamic properties go, the glider is awesome. I love all the ways that you can kill yourself when flying as well

But I do have some suggestions for the next version.

First of all... many more ways to damage or destroy your glider:

- High wing load could tare off a wing (not necessarily both of them or destroy the glider right away...) which would send the glider spiraling down to Earth with the crew having only seconds to eject.

- I love how the air break gets damaged at high dynamic pressure... and I'd love to see the control surfaces being torn off or damaged as well. Let them be independent of each other... so that individual surfaces could get torn off, not all at once.

- I love how the wind can tare off individual parts at high dynamic pressures... like if you goof around and open the nose cone in flight... or leave anything else open or deployed. But when that happens, the aerodynamic properties of the ship don't get affected much. A bit more drag if I'm correct... I would think that in reality the aerodynamic properties would be changed far more because of damage like this.

- I love how you can break the landing gear if you have a clumsy landing or goofing around. But if you break one of the landing gears, all get torn off. I'd like to see them being independent of each other so if you can break individual ones.

- I know that DeltaGlider is set in the future where the technology would be a bit more advanced... but still... nothing ever fails? No electrical systems ever failing, no fuel or LOX leaks? I would love the idea of having to take the UMMU out to fix the ship from time to time.

- I'd love the idea of my engines failing from time to time. Or maybe just one of them... or one of the hover engines

I'd like to see stuff like this built into the DG to further test the skill of the pilot... because it seems that with all the auto pilots and advanced MFD's around, the pilot doesn't have to do much else then... sit and watch


I'd like to see some aditional stuff:

- First of all... a bit bigger ship. Building a space station with the Space Station Building Blocks would be excellent. I know there are other ships that do that like the X5 Vanguard... but... how real is that when you can take half of the space station up in one flight? Just make it big enough to be able to take 1 of those blocks up at once.

- More payloads and interactive payloads. Taking up all the verious sattelites would be nice. Although in the future I'd prefer some easier activation codes. Afterall, I only found this thread because I was looking for the activation codes... yet again! :dry:

- Scram jets. I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate those. With a bigger ship, you'd also gain the fuel space.

- Tools to fix your ship. I mean... who leaves LEO without a scredriver, right?

- Repair truck to repair your ship on the ground if you damaged it. Fuel truck to refuel you. But both of these only in the vicinity of bases. Within 2 kms or so. It's kinda not realistic if you land in the middle of the moon somewhere and can refuel your ship. Anyone see Martian space fuel tankers around? xD

- Faster ejection sequence and ejection seats for all. My guys die too, you know?

As for a few bugs that I've found:

- If you hover very close to the ground... say 0.5 m and deply the gear, your ship will get ejected some 200 meters into the sky and given a lot of spin. Anyone else see anything wrong with that?

- Is it just me or does the Sun disappear during re-entery and high G turns? :huh:
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the secondary mesh that appears.

- When activating turbo pumps, they ignore the time compression. If in normal time it takes the pumps 2 seconds to turn on... if you slow time down to 0.1x, it will take them only 0.2 seconds of sim time.

- When accelerating on the runway at 0.1x time, you're gonna get high G warnings and it can come to the point where your crew faints.

- You can still fly the ship normally if your captain faints from high G forces.

- Not quite sure if this is a bug... but... the RCS fuel consumption is very very low. I mean... I can do some calculations to get a few figures... but I'm sure it's pretty obvious that fuel consumption is too low. With the huge tank DG IV has got, I had to go out of line to use up 20% of the fuel... oh and I leave the RCS on even during atmospheric flight.


That would be about it for now. I'll write more if I can remember
I hope at least some of these get taken into account.
Thanks again for the incredible work on the DG IV! :speakcool:

 

[RisingFury]

Right... few more things that I can think of.

Of course there would be people annoyed by the random failures of certain DG V systems from time to time. I can imagine returning from Jupiter with my engine blown
So in the DG V config, include the checkboxes to turn off these types of damage. Independently of the "chicken mode".

Next off... better integration with the OrbiterSound. XR1 and XR5 have beautiful integration with OrbiterSound and I think that's really lacking in DG. I know good voice acting isn't easy to come by, but if you can't find any, I'd be happy with the Vista speech synthesis system voices like currently. Just include more of them

 

[RisingFury]

- Ion Engine for trips to outer planets. Given that they've been in use for a while on space stations to counter drag... and have now been used on at least 3 deep space missions (Deep space 1, Hayabusa and Dawn) I don't see why it shouldn't be implemented on the DG V.

Also... I haven't been able to find *any* Ion Engine based mission for Orbiter and would really like to see something


Edit:

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster

 

[willy88]

Given that they've been in use for a while on space stations to counter drag...

Am I missing something? I don't think ion engines have ever been used on any manned spacecraft (including space stations).

 

[RisingFury]

Not manned space craft. Deep space 1, Hayabusa and Dawn are all unmanned. But they have been used on space stations by Russia as far as I understand. And in addition to that, ESA failed to launch one of their satellites to the desired attitude and used the ion thrusters (which were secondary thrusters) over 16 months to get the satellite to the required attitude.


The roots of the ion engines go further back then some people imagine. The first idea came from the men that worked on the V1 and V2 rockets for Germany. Now, I forgot the last name, but someone gave a book to Werner von Brown (who is widely reguarded as one of the fathers of modern rocketry) to study it. The first ion thrusters were actually developped in the late 50's. They worked well, being tested for 1000's of hours in the SERT mission (Space Electric Rocket Test).

But the real test for the technology came in 1998 with the launch of Deep Space 1. The probe tested 11 new systems, including the Ion Engine, autonomous navigation system and a smart repair bot (Remote agent). It was to rondevouz with the comment Borrelly, whch was at that time beyond the orbit of Mars. The space craft needed 3 months to reach it.


As far as the ion engines never being used on a manned mission......... we're talking about a space craft the side of a plane, very powerful engines and very small amount of fuel, being able to reach the otuer plannets and returning.... is it really *that* wrong to put some more technology on it? Hell, technology that we already have

The only reason ion engines were never used on a manned mission other then space stations is that they have a very low thrust. We're talking about... several Newtons of thrust, compared to the 320 000 N that Delta Glider has in one of the setups.

Hell, it took the Deep Space 1 four days to accelerate by 30 m/s. Can't really expect that to be implemented for at least as long as someone sends people to Mars.

 

[EliNaut]

DGV Ideas

The DGIV has taken Orbiter to a new height.
Some of my ideas and highlights to cast it even higher:

*I agree with the idea of a virtual cockpit, to put you in full perspective of "being" a UMMU Astronaut.

*Engines are sound as they are, fuel options are fine, though I did run in to quite a pinch in life support with a Earth/Saturn trip. Thank god I packed extra LS in the cargo bay! Thinking it over I wouldnt mind test driving an Ion engine mode/version. My only concern is again the amount of LS resources, if youd still be able to make a decent journey with them in a good amount of time.

*As I just mentioned, that cargo bay saved my voyage a few times. I'd keep it.

*I know its seperate from the ship itself, but one payload I would love to see is a semi-fold up rover for going short distances around a base or for transporting crew to other ships, etc etc. Just a fancy idea of mine.

*As for random events, such as comp failure, engine problems, and the likes of those, i'd have to try it out in order to form an opinion on it. As someone mentioned before, a toggle for it would be preffered for that kind of thing.

*Extra docking port in the cargo bay? Eh I dont think so... With the exception of the thought of wanting to do EVA work while still docked to another craft, such as tinkering on the ISS and such... so on second thought it wouldnt be too bad of an idea.

*Keep the scaling. I'm not the hugest XR5 fan, because I question its realism when on that large of a scale. Stay original

*SCRAMs? Bring em on. I liked how they ticked on the DG-S, and would like to play with them in a more sensitive/capable ship.

*Cargo bay arm sounds cool. Be easier than having to slap one on with the Universal RMS every time.

*AP's are well tuned. Keep those in.. if you wanna add onto the arsenal, go ahead.

...Thats all that comes to mind as of the moment.
Keep up the awesome work!!

Happy orbiting...

 

[Woo482]

if you want a rover there is my manned mars rover [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3430"]Woo482's manned mars rover[/ame]