Project Mars Design Reference Mission 1

Well I've downloaded Velcro Rockets. Launched the landers with the Nova MM S10E-1 quite nicely! :thumbup:

It means now a lander and NTR propulsion stage can be launched together (I think I will perhaps combine them into one vessel for launch).

we will still be able to use other launchers to launch them separately for realism right?
 
Yes of course. The Nova was just a test using velcro.There will be an option to launch the stack as one vessel or to launch each part seperately and assemble in orbit.
 
MarkP, I just wanted to say...

This is an outstanding add-on, I followed it from the beginning and you have brought a great design to life in a wonderful and fascinating capacity. Great work!
 
Thanks Capt Hensley! I am having a lot of fun with this and also it is very interesting how it all works together.

Couple of recent tests here. Firstly a picture of two Nova rockets. The one in the background has the fairing jettisoned to show the payload (a lander + NTR). The lander+NTR is much easier to control in orbit as one vessel because the mass isn't distributed as with two docked vessels. The lander and NTR can still be launched separately though to be more realistic.

The Nova in the foreground has a lander with UCGO cargo loaded aboard and I have unloaded it to see if it can be picked back up. One is falling from the top of the rocket with a parachute!

Secondly a picture from some landing tests at the new Isidis Highlands location.

Soon I hope to do the mission from launch to landing and setting up the base.

UCGOdrop.jpg

HighlandsLanding.jpg
 
Progress report:

1. Have managed to fly a lander to Mars all the way from launch. This is after much faffing about with IMFD and remembering the technique for flying the NTR. This means I can now set up the base and then that will be all the new scenarios generated for the next release.

2. UMMU's can climb aboard or disembark the habitat lander while it is atop a launcher (Velcro). Unfortunately I haven't been able to grapple cargo from the launch pad onto the cargo lander yet. Not sure why. I have increased the grappling radius but still doesn't work. I think the cargo will have to be loaded from disc.

3. Made a basic mesh and dll for the Earth Return Vehicle (see below with the MAV). This ERV is supposed to be launched with the cargo lander, and the uncrewed habitat lander to Mars, and then aerobrake into orbit (it will have it's own aeroshell). Then the ERV hangs around for a while in orbit until after the surface mission has been completed. I haven't got time to try the return mission. I will include the ERV with the next release though.

ERV&MAV.jpg
 
OK first time testing all the components together with the new autopilots and cargos. All went surprisingly smoothly with no unexpected behaviour or CTDs which is very welcome.

Landings went well with good landing precision. The image below shows the crew landing (it's at night and the image has been severely autocorrected!)

CrewLanding.jpg

Below shows most of the deployed cargo. In the background are the parachutes from the landers.

Unpacked.jpg
 
The fleet of cargo spacecraft ready to go to Mars!

ToMars.jpg

All the scenarios I've wanted to do are done now and everything is working very nicely. Taken a lot longer than I thought but of course, like everyone developing add-ons, it depends on my spare time.

A few bit and bobs to do yet. Have to check the manual descent works ok and the landers are working ok with Wishbone's NTR.
 
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Hi, just waiting for a decent amount of time to become available to write a landing tutorial for the manual.

In the mean time here is a quick video I made of the landing. The habitat lander lands quite close to the target landing site. The cargo lander runs out fuel just before touch down and skids along the surface past the landing site. If I'd notice I would have used the magic refuel button to fill the tank but I think it is a good enough demonstration for now.


 
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Are you going to implement the correct fuel capacity and ISP to these landers? because I think refueling them during the mission is cheating
 
This:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5175"]Mars Human Exploration Sites[/ame]

:tiphat:
 
grillo2002, yes will have correct isp and mass. It is possible to land with this but for development have taken some liberties. I hope the almighty probe will forgive me for this.

Yes thanks to Wishbone for putting all those bases together.
 
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Hi, just waiting for a decent amount of time to become available to write a landing tutorial for the manual.

In the mean time here is a quick video I made of the landing. The habitat lander lands quite close to the target landing site. The cargo lander runs out fuel just before touch down and skids along the surface past the landing site. If I'd notice I would have used the magic refuel button to fill the tank but I think it is a good enough demonstration for now.


clip0018.avi - YouTube

Where did you get the terrain in the video. It looks good.
 
The mesh is Isidis Highlands by Foxtrot from 2002!! It's available on avsim still but is a bit awkward to access as you need to login but is well worth getting. The texture is by alexander_spb and is available on Orbit Hanger Mods :
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5493"]New Textures for Martian Landmarks. PART 2[/ame]

The manual is updated now with a tutorial and the addon is all zipped up ready to go. I'll probably wait a few days, before releasing it, to do some final tests on some clean Orbiter installs.
 
The mesh is Isidis Highlands by Foxtrot from 2002!! It's available on avsim still but is a bit awkward to access as you need to login but is well worth getting. The texture is by alexander_spb and is available on Orbit Hanger Mods :
New Textures for Martian Landmarks. PART 2

The manual is updated now with a tutorial and the addon is all zipped up ready to go. I'll probably wait a few days, before releasing it, to do some final tests on some clean Orbiter installs.

Appreciate all your hard work! :)
 
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Chutes.jpg

OK it's been released on Orbit Hanger Mods
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5208"]Design Reference Mission 1 v1.4[/ame]
 
What launch tower is that MarkP?I don't remember seeing that in the latest version of the spacex addon.Where did you get it from?Thanks
 

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