Iron Hill Project Thread

[Will]

Wow! This looks amazing!

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Does anyone know how to do a Apollo-13 style slingshot if for some reason we can't land on Mercury?

It should be possible. Arrowstar's Trajectory Optimization tool could be of use there.

 

[RickD]

I'm just getting back into Orbiter after a long hiatus so my flight skills are very rusty, but I'd like to be a part of this and am volunteering for Solar 2, if that is still open. I'm a ham radio operator and former computer engineer, if any of those skills help during or for mission setup.

By coincidence, I just finished rereading Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, in which Mercury plays a prominent part. It would be fun to see the place.

Rick

 

[TMac3000]

Welcome aboard:thumbup:

As part of the solar studies team, you'll be accompanying Filipi1205 to the sunlit region of Chao-Meng-Fu Crater. Bring your climbing equipment; I can promise, the view from the rim won't let you down

Base Commander/Doctor: TMac3000 (though I would rather fly Odyssey. Does anyone else want this slot?)
Geology 1: Lydia
Geology 2: Mojoey
Solar 1: Filipi1205
Solar 2: RickD

Odyssey Crew:
Commander:
Pilot:

Columbus Crew:
Commander:
Pilot:

Chronus Crew
Pilot:
Copilot:

Hermes Crew
I'll wait until we have a pilot/copilot for Cronus before opening up the backup crew positions.
That completes the base crew. Now calling for pilots

---------- Post added at 09:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------

PS: Alas, I don't remember Mercury appearing in Clarke's RWR, but it was home to a species of underground crustaceans in Stephen Baxter's "Vacuum Diagrams"

 

[RickD]

Glad to join the team. I look forward to the view from that crater!

As for Clarke's RWR, there are no scenes on Mercury, but it was extensively colonized to support mining operations. The Mercurians are a crusty bunch and cause a bit of trouble near the end of the story.

Rick

 

[TMac3000]

I do vaguely remember that now: I think they called them "Hermians?"

 

[Lydia]

god i have a hard thing on my mind here i like piloting spacecraft but i also like geology

 

[TMac3000]

Crew selection isn't finalized yet by any means; there's still time to change your mind

 

[mojoey]

Crew selection isn't finalized yet by any means; there's still time to change your mind

I'll have to practice not killing UMMUs

 

[TMac3000]

So will I...I badly borked the Mercury deorbit burn in a practice run this morning, smashed the ship into the ground at >200 m/s and killed everyone aboard
Back to practicing:lol:

 

[mojoey]

So will I...I badly borked the Mercury deorbit burn in a practice run this morning, smashed the ship into the ground at >200 m/s and killed everyone aboard
Back to practicing:lol:

as someone who is going to be riding on that ship...WHY?!?!

 

[TMac3000]

Because I thought that instead of doing it the tried and true way, I could be a smarty-pants and set my deorbit periapsis just above the surface, say 2 or 3 km. But I misjudged the braking burn while closing in on the base and splat:facepalm:

I assure you, it will not happen again. On second thought, maybe I should hang on to that base commander position:hmm:

 

[RickD]

Sorry for introducing science fiction into this real science endeavor but you have a good memory, Clarke did call them Hermians.

Rick

 

[TMac3000]

No problem; a little context always helps
Okay, the base crew is signed up and ready, but we need pilots. If we want to go anywhere, somebody has to drive

 

[TMac3000]

Just discovered a major hitch in the mission: the Arrow does not have enough hover power for transitional surface flight on Mercury. So it looks like the Intrepid will be going along after all, and remaining docked until after orbital insertion. Sorry, Crothor and the others who offered great solutions around the problem. The mission continues as scheduled, of course, but with the changes mentioned above.

 

[Felipi1205]

Nice! And I can create a landing site for the crew in this week (My computer is almost complete :-D).

 

[TMac3000]

Sounds good. I'll soon be posting a diagram of the base design I want

 

[Felipi1205]

Nice!

 

[mojoey]

TMac: The Arrow, as stated in the manual, can only land on Moons, such as the one orbiting earth, and a few others in the Jovian system. A quick trip to the .cfg could fix that

 

[Felipi1205]

Mercury is smaller than Ganymede, I think the Arrow can do it! And DanSteph was talking about planets with atmosphere...
And TMac, do you have any hi-res texture of the Chao-Meng-Fu crater?