AutopilotMFD How to Get into Orbit

[Robertemcsqd]

Can someone show me how to activate/program autopilot to assend into orbit.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

What spacecraft or rocket are you trying to launch? Have you read the Orbiter user manual before using it for the first time?

 

[ADSWNJ]

Can someone show me how to activate/program autopilot to assend into orbit.

Hi Rob and welcome to the forum. Do a Google for Orbiter Go Play In Space, and have a read of that document. It's a great place to start with this fascinating complex environment, and it has the right blend of information and fun to get you going.

On your question, you have two groups of space launch vehicles that can launch from Earth ... ones that launch off runways (eg. the default DeltaGlider or DG for short, or the optional addon XR-series of ships like the XR-5), and ones that launch off launch pads (eg. Shuttle, or the optional Ariane or Russian launchers).

Typically the former group are designed for you to fly to orbit, and the latter usually have autopilots to get to orbit (though you can almost always take over and fly them manually.)


Here's the simplest way to fly a DeltaGlider to orbit. Bring up Surface MFD on your left MFD, and Orbit on your right MFD (i.e. hit PWR if it's not switched on, the SEL to select the MFD, then select with the button). Apply full power, and get airborne when it feels right. Raise gear (G). Bank around to point East (090 degrees). Your goal is now to get to around 7500 m/s horizontal speed, so focus on this rather than pointing straight up. A gentle climb at say 5 degrees is fine for beginning.

As you get up to 6000 m/s, start looking at your Orbit MFD. You want to find PeA and ApA and Alt. (You may well see PeR and ApR instead, meaning radius rather than altitude. If so - hit DST to switch to PeA, ApA.) PeA is the altitude at the lowest point of your orbit (the periapsis), and ApA is the high point. As you climb to say 60km, it's normal to have an ApA very close to your current Alt, and a PeA that's negative. This says that you are still sub-orbital, and if you throttled off now, you would descend back and land or crash.

So ... as your speed comes up to 7000 m/s, you now need to watch ApA and Alt like a hawk. You will see ApA start to move away from your current Alt. It starts slowly, but at a critical speed (orbital velocity / almost) you see ApA start to race higher. As soon as it gets to 300 km, stop your engines. (Strictly, 200km and above is fine, but I'm adding a bit of height so you climb out of the atmosphere easily).

Watch the remainder of your climb, as your Alt comes up to your ApA. You can also watch the Apoapsis Time counter (ApT) count down to zero. As you get close to this time (say ApT = 200) hit the PROGRADE autopilot button. As you get to say 15 secs to the apoapsis, fire up your engines again and keep thrusting until you lift the periapsis (PeA) up to 300km.

That's a quick and dirty ascent. There's hundreds of optimizations to this, but for those, you need to read and try everything !!

Good luck.

 

[n72.75]