Project DeltaGlider-R ('R' for 'realistic')

[Thymo]

OTOH, in space you have the biggest vacuum flask in the universe, and evaporative cooling works well if you have the mass budget to carry a bit extra.

Cooling isn't an issue really. The hydrogen tanks on Apollo actually had heaters in them because pressure couldn't be maintained otherwise.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

The ground hatch/door, and progress on the payload bay. Wings should look a little better too.

Finding the best location for the RCS thrusters is not going to be easy, given a) its never easy to find a fictional spacecraft Center of Mass b) that the CoM shifts as propellant is burnt and the payload is released. Have to add a set of "fine control" RCS thrusters too.

Also, given the relative small size of the spacecraft, the nosewheel housing will probably make some kind of bump on the cabin floor.

Only if you keep that single large, relatively low-pressure tire up front. And even then, you can rotate it 90° along the axis of the oleo strut as it retracts to make it sit parallel to the floor. Personally, I'd spring for a double wheel nose gear and high-pressure tires, as you're not expecting to land on anything other than a well-prepared runway.

 

[N_Molson]

Only if you keep that single large, relatively low-pressure tire up front. And even then, you can rotate it 90° along the axis of the oleo strut as it retracts to make it sit parallel to the floor. Personally, I'd spring for a double wheel nose gear and high-pressure tires, as you're not expecting to land on anything other than a well-prepared runway.

Yes, I was thinking about the 90° rotation as a possible workaround. And yes, I'm probably going for 2-wheels/leg landing gear. Wet mass will probably around 40 tons, so a bit heavy for 1-wheel legs. Big tires would be fun for a russian version that could land on ice :lol: I'm going for a NASA shuttle-like build first, but I'd like to do EU & Russian (or Soviet) mods too.

 

[Urwumpe]

Only if the European Version then is overdesigned and too late. :rofl:

 

[N_Molson]

Progress on the payload bay. Definitively large enough for a capable satellite, or a small station module.

Do you think a robotic arm is necessary ? True, being able to capture something into space and bring it back on the ground is the whole point of a shuttle-like design.



Update on the nosewheels. Also added a radiator.



Just noticed that the Space Shuttle nosewheel retracted in the nose, which solves my volume problem.

 

[N_Molson]

Still details to fix, but overall she's taking shape :



Nosewheel retracted :

 

[Abdullah]

Make realistic reentry FX

 

[N_Molson]

Make realistic reentry FX

Well, I have an idea about this, but I'm not sure how it will look. We'll see...

---------- Post added at 03:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 AM ----------

If someone has a good pic, I'm searching for a view of the Space Shuttle docking mechanism. I have schematics, but a good pic would help for fine details.

Like that one :



So far :



---------- Post added at 10:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------

With the little latches :




That little bugger took me 1 whole day, and not over yet ! That's definitively the kind of model I'm willing to share with the community - can be useful in many addons. After all, its supposed to be something universal, following international standards

 

[DaveS]

What you probably want is this: http://www.internationaldockingstandard.com/download/IDSS_IDD_Revision_E_TAGGED.pdf

What the shuttle made use of was the Russian APAS-95 which was to be used on the Soviet orbiters. Russia provided the docking system while Rockwell Intl (the orbiter vehicle contractor) provided the External Airlock on which the docking system sits. The International Docking System (IDS) is similar to APAS-95 but not identical (it evolved from NASA's own Low Impact Docking System) which is why there's a need for an adapter called the International Docking Adapter (IDA). IDA-1 was lost in the SpaceX CRS-7 launch failure, while IDA-2 is attached to Pressurized Mating Adapter-2(PMA-2) and IDA-3 will be installed on Wednesday, August 21 on PMA-3.

 

[N_Molson]

Yep I have it already. I made the model above with schematics of that document as background image. So it should be pretty accurate

 

[Interceptor]

Yeah,I would like to see a robotic arm.:thumbup:

 

[N_Molson]

Yeah,I would like to see a robotic arm

Should be possible, Martins even provides a sample in Space Shuttle Atlantis source code. And yeah, the more I think to it, the more I see it necessary to grapple small satellites and service them, would make the spacecraft quite versatile despite its limited dimensions. Maybe not something as articulated, but enough to secure things in the payload bay.

---------- Post added at 08:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 AM ----------

Spend the (dev) day on the docking mechanism again. Those hooks looked ugly, so I redraw them the proper way (the IDSS document has schematics for nearly any part). In fact each pair of hooks has an active and a passive one. Which makes sense, so that they can grapple the hooks on opposite docking port. Each active hook locks with a passive hook, and vice versa.

Also found a much better picture of the Shuttle docking port.

So still work to do, but it begins to look better :

The interesting thing is that you have to understand (at a basic level) how the thing works to model it properly.

---------- Post added 08-19-19 at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was 08-18-19 at 08:02 PM ----------

Took a looot of time, but we're getting there. Still a couple of pins to add, but I have good hope to merge it with the spacecraft tomorrow. Now I see that kind of model as an investment. Animating it in Orbiter is going to be a looot of fun. But first things first.



---------- Post added 08-20-19 at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was 08-19-19 at 07:17 PM ----------

Here we go. Should fit just right under the bay doors once the docking collar retracted. The docking tunnel will be as large as a phone booth but well, that's the idea.



Given the small size of the payload bay, the robotic arm needs 3, maybe 4 segments to be really useful.

 

[Interceptor]

I am Really liking what,I am seeing N_Molson great job.:thumbup:

 

[N_Molson]

Tried to export my mesh to Orbiter using Vlad's Blender import/export script... Well, it works. Now it will take a lot of practice to get something that really looks as it should. One thing is that Blender and Orbiter (D3D9 client) handle materials quite differently. Getting normals right is quite obvious for exterior parts such as the hull, but a bit tricky for inside. And I'll have to get into textures & UV mapping at some point, which scares me a little bit. Need to watch a bunch of tutorials

 

[4throck]

Blender's realtime OpenGL preview is close to Orbiter rendering. So use that and you should be fine.
Normals can get flipped on export. A solution is to use double sided faces.
For the VC you might have problems with Orbiter camera clipping distance. Depends on your view and if you are using multiple meshes or not.

Good luck!

 

[N_Molson]

Import in Orbiter begins to look the way I want :



Exterior is mostly finished. Let's make a small list of what remains to be done in Blender :

- "External view" interior (in progress)
- Landing gear details (in progress)
- Robotic arm details (in progress)
- Payload bay details
- Crew meshes
- "True interior" aka Virtual Cockpit
- "FX meshes"
- Clean mesh names and logic, join them "smartly" to lower the count and prepare texturing work

- Launcher
- Some payloads (including the stowable solar array for extended duration missions)

 

[N_Molson]

Some progress on the main landing gear :

 

[4throck]

Those details remind me of my Hermes mesh.
I have it exported to Orbiter but never got around to coding.

N_Molson, if you are interested on programing it someday (code should be similar to DG-R), just PM me.

No thread derailing intended

 

[N_Molson]

More work on the main landing gear. I can't wait to animate this :shifty:

 

[N_Molson]

I've been working mostly on the "holes" those last days. More precisely on making the "outside holes" match the "inside holes". A lot of time-consuming vertex-to-vertex hand work.

In short, we now have an interior. It's still raw of course but will be fine with minor changes (and of course heavy texturing !) for the "through the windows" exterior views. It will also serve as a template for the VC.

The row of three seats could be removed for extended duration missions, providing some living space for two 'nauts. The doorway is meant to be used on the ground as an exit or why not to bail out should the need arise.