Go Play in Space

[computerex]

Has everything one would need to excel in Orbiter. It teaches interplanetary flights, orbital rondevouzs, and other Orbital concepts. Useful for experienced and inexperienced users.

 

[Bullethead]

As a brand new noob who has recently spent a LOT of time using and perusing this book, I have to say it's been a big help, up until the part about going to Mars. That part, I'm afraid, has been made obsolete by changes to the add-ons it recommends using.

First off, it wants you to use IMFD 4.21. But the current version is 5.1e, which does many things rather differently and thus doesn't match "Go Play in Space". I'd recommend instead looking at rdenny's video tutorial for IMFD5 (which still doesn't quite match 5.1e, but is much closer than GPiS). The video is found HERE.

Second, GPiS wants you to use LandMFD for final approach. This is hard to find--doesn't seem to be at Orbit Hangar, only at the link shown in the GPiS introduction. But this version doesn't work as advertised, for some reason. It never fires the main engines, just the hovers, so instead of deorbiting and landing, you end up doing outside loops while still up in orbit. Thus, you either need a different auto-landing MFD, or you need to learn how to do it manually.

 

[FlyingSinger]

Thanks for the recommendation and feedback on "Go Play In Space" - Andy and I are really glad that it's been helpful for some people learning Orbiter. Regarding the Mars chapter, we added it for the 2006 release in May 2006 (the September P1 patch didn't change much that would affect the book) when IMFD v4.2.1 was current, and we haven't updated the book since. Jarmo has continued to improve IMFD, but he still makes v4.2.1 available on his web site. It's true the IMFD interface has changed somewhat, but I think that if you install and use v4.2.1 to follow the steps in the Mars chapter, you will still learn useful concepts that will largely apply to v5.1 (Rob Denny's v5 video tutorial is very good - I tried it and reviewed it in my blog recently).

As far as LandMFD, this is truly a masterpiece by the late "LazyD" though it is really for no-atmosphere bodies like the Moon. It does work in Mars' thin atmosphere, but it's a bit marginal. You can get LandMFD on Andy's Virtual Spaceflight site here.

We are considering whether to do a new edition of GPIS. Orbiter is still the 2006 version, but there are many changes in add-ons, web sites, etc. as well as the Mars chapter. It's a lot of work but we will look into it. I'll be in the UK in April on business and I'm hoping to get together with Andy and Mark Paton some evening. Maybe we'll decide to do something new for the Mars chapter and perhaps even add a chapter on add-on modeling.

Cheers,
Bruce

 

[Bullethead]

Thanks for the recommendation and feedback on "Go Play In Space" - Andy and I are really glad that it's been helpful for some people learning Orbiter.

An honor to talk to you, sir .

In my limited experience so far (verging on 2 weeks), I'd say you should have no fear of how helpful GPiS has been. Every forum I've looked on, all the "help the noob" topics have always recommended it, so I figure most of the community must have cut their teeth on it.

Regarding the Mars chapter, we added it for the 2006 release in May 2006 (the September P1 patch didn't change much that would affect the book) when IMFD v4.2.1 was current, and we haven't updated the book since. Jarmo has continued to improve IMFD, but he still makes v4.2.1 available on his web site. It's true the IMFD interface has changed somewhat, but I think that if you install and use v4.2.1 to follow the steps in the Mars chapter, you will still learn useful concepts that will largely apply to v5.1 (Rob Denny's v5 video tutorial is very good - I tried it and reviewed it in my blog recently).

I seem to have come along in a transitional period as far as interplanetary stuff goes. I can't find any comprehensive written docs or tutorials for either TransX or IMFD that apply to the latest versions. I've been experimenting with both, which I think is useful. They approach the problem from different directions, and comparing them provides understanding of the underlying principles common to both. It might be useful to have a tutorial in a future GPiS version along these lines, because I think it's helped me understand the more important aspects of the orbit situation.

As to IMFD specifically, I'd recommend against using 5.1e at present. Even Jarmo admits on M6 that it's got bugs, and these bugs prevent you from duplicating rdenny's video. One problem is that autoburn doesn't work in the Planet Approach and Orbit Insert modes in rdenny's Europa-Callisto trip, although autoburn works fine going from Mars to Earth in the analogous situations. There are a couple of other problems with 5.1e as compared to the video, such as, no indication of leaving SOI after the ejection burn, and no automatic change to Off Plane trajectory when you set up for the plane change burn mid-course. I think the video was made with 5.0 or at least some earlier version than 5.1e. But 5.0 is also still available at Jarmo's.

As far as LandMFD, this is truly a masterpiece by the late "LazyD" though it is really for no-atmosphere bodies like the Moon. It does work in Mars' thin atmosphere, but it's a bit marginal. You can get LandMFD on Andy's Virtual Spaceflight site here.

I was looking through the files that come with LandMFD, and it appears to have a .cfg file for most bases, which I assume tells the MFD how to land at each place. But there is no Olympus.cfg in the version I got (following the link in GPiS). This might explain why I get the hover-powered outside loops when I try to use it there--the MFD doens't know what to do at Olympus.

We are considering whether to do a new edition of GPIS. Orbiter is still the 2006 version, but there are many changes in add-ons, web sites, etc. as well as the Mars chapter. It's a lot of work but we will look into it.

Well, I'd vote for doing it. Honestly, GPiS has taught me more than everything else combined, and I'm sure most people would say the same. If GPiS becomes painfully obsolete, what will the noobs of Orbiter 2008 do? IMHO, it's a question of keeping the community going. The noobs of today are tomorrow's add-on makers and sustaining spirits. The giants of the present always disappear eventually, due to real life issues. If nothing's around to show noobs the ropes, there will be no giants in the future.

 

[tblaxland]

I seem to have come along in a transitional period as far as interplanetary stuff goes. I can't find any comprehensive written docs or tutorials for either TransX or IMFD that apply to the latest versions.

Welcome to the Orbiter community! I have been using Orbiter for nearly two years and I can say that Orbiter has been "transitional" throughout that period

We are lucky enough to have a very active development community so the tutorials never seem to quite catch up with the developers. That is a good thing though - it is much better to have active development than up to date tutorials. To the developers credit, the documentation is pretty good considering how fast things change.

 

[silent_protagonist]

You could also try [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3172"]Lola MFD[/ame], which was to be Land MFD's successor. It's incomplete, but AFAIK it will do everything Land MFD did, and it's more compatible to boot.

 

[Bullethead]

We are lucky enough to have a very active development community so the tutorials never seem to quite catch up with the developers.

Yeah, that's a good thing I guess.

Speaking of developers, your AttitudeMFD rocks! My docking is like my golf game. I can hit the tee shot (align) and approach (synch) shots fine, but can't putt (dock approach) to save my soul. That is, until I put AttitudeMFD in target-relative mode . Thanks muchos!

 

[Bullethead]

You could also try Lola MFD, which was to be Land MFD's successor. It's incomplete, but AFAIK it will do everything Land MFD did, and it's more compatible to boot.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[tblaxland]

...your AttitudeMFD rocks!

Aw, shucks . I can't take all the credit - Chris Knestrick was responsible for V1/2 and Bob Denny did V3. I just added my refinements in V3.1/V3.2.

 

[FordPrefect]

tblaxland, quick question. Do you have plans to make AttitudeMFD stay with the vessel or cockpit view it has originally been set up? I mean e.g. I put the ISS in that special Shuttle-ISS docked attitude oriented relative to the velocity vector. Now, as soon as you switch to a different cockpit view AttitudeMFD tries to adjust the numbers to this new view, or when switching focus to another vessel (like EVA astronauts) I would like to have the MFD keep the ISS in the programmed attitude. Sorry for the small thread hi-jack.

 

[tblaxland]

tblaxland, quick question. Do you have plans to make AttitudeMFD stay with the vessel or cockpit view it has originally been set up? I mean e.g. I put the ISS in that special Shuttle-ISS docked attitude oriented relative to the velocity vector. Now, as soon as you switch to a different cockpit view AttitudeMFD tries to adjust the numbers to this new view, or when switching focus to another vessel (like EVA astronauts) I would like to have the MFD keep the ISS in the programmed attitude. Sorry for the small thread hi-jack.

In work at present. I've done the major structural code changes and I am in the process of debugging those. I also need to do a few changes to the GUI to suit the new code and update the documentation.

In addition to the functionality you mention above, you will also be able to remote control/view the attitude of one vessel from within another. For example, from within the ISS "cockpit" command the shuttle to perform the RPM.

 

[polaris149Tiberius]

I seem to have come along in a transitional period as far as interplanetary stuff goes. I can't find any comprehensive written docs or tutorials for either TransX or IMFD that apply to the latest versions. I've been experimenting with both, which I think is useful. They approach the problem from different directions, and comparing them provides understanding of the underlying principles common to both. It might be useful to have a tutorial in a future GPiS version along these lines, because I think it's helped me understand the more important aspects of the orbit situation.

Hello, just some input. I dont have anything from planet to planet in my tutorials but I try and produce tutorials that use the latest versions of things ONLY. This includes IMFD 5.1m. Jarmo and I have some threads here that identify and fix known issues and so far it seems to work like a dream with all my interplanetary testing and so fourth. You may find my tutorials here in these forums and only in these forums so far.

The one Im working on that is near completion is this one and it shows how to go to the moon. I will work on interplanetary stuff after I fully understand the historical nature of NASA's endevours to go to the moon in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. Here is the link and it uses the latest version of IMFD if your interested:

"From the Earth to The Moon" an AMSO 1.17 Apollo 11 Full Mission Tutorial Using IMFD