SystemsLock
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On his 21st orbit, Gordon Cooper piloting Faith 7 (the last of the Mercury missions) lost all telemetry data and automatic control of his craft. With CO2 levels rising, using only his wristwatch and the stars, he successively calculated and performed the most accurate reentry burn of the Mercury program.
I'd love to do something similar in Orbiter. Maybe not the same way he did it, but keeping with the spirit. Let's say you're in a craft with an unknown circular orbit and no instrumentation of any kind (except maybe a watch). Is it possible to reenter that craft, survive, and hit a reasonably sized target zone?
I've figured out by now that if I can determine my position around the Earth, all other critical information (speed, altitude, relative inclination, etc.) could be determined by successive measurements of my position and Kepler's laws. In theory anyway, I should be able to determine my position using celestial navigation.
Wikipedia tells me that I have two practical choices for celestial navigation. The more complicated yet more accurate "Altitude-Intercept Method" (which I am yet to find a tutorial or even a simplistic explanation of). Or I can simply use the north star and the position of the sun to find my position (which is rather straightforward). Both methods however require use of a sextant (a device which gives me the angle between the horizon and the star) which no craft contains (except maybe NASSP). I can use the surface HUD, but it's only accurate within 10 degrees and it displays a lot of other telemetry data that I shouldn't know. Is there some way I can adjust what the HUD displays or create a simple addon that does what I want?
If anyone else has attempted something similar I'd love to know about it. And if anyone has any advice for me in general that would be great too. Thanks.
I'd love to do something similar in Orbiter. Maybe not the same way he did it, but keeping with the spirit. Let's say you're in a craft with an unknown circular orbit and no instrumentation of any kind (except maybe a watch). Is it possible to reenter that craft, survive, and hit a reasonably sized target zone?
I've figured out by now that if I can determine my position around the Earth, all other critical information (speed, altitude, relative inclination, etc.) could be determined by successive measurements of my position and Kepler's laws. In theory anyway, I should be able to determine my position using celestial navigation.
Wikipedia tells me that I have two practical choices for celestial navigation. The more complicated yet more accurate "Altitude-Intercept Method" (which I am yet to find a tutorial or even a simplistic explanation of). Or I can simply use the north star and the position of the sun to find my position (which is rather straightforward). Both methods however require use of a sextant (a device which gives me the angle between the horizon and the star) which no craft contains (except maybe NASSP). I can use the surface HUD, but it's only accurate within 10 degrees and it displays a lot of other telemetry data that I shouldn't know. Is there some way I can adjust what the HUD displays or create a simple addon that does what I want?
If anyone else has attempted something similar I'd love to know about it. And if anyone has any advice for me in general that would be great too. Thanks.
