New to Orbiter

[DuskDragon]

I was introduced to orbiter a few weeks ago and I managed to actually dock with the ISS with a DGIV using a tutorial I found on Vimeo just today. The settings I used for the DGIV was mid or moon level fuel and 1 year O2. Even with this much fuel I still was at 38% (mains) when I docked with ISS and I didn't even do a direct assent.

Following that I decided to go from the ISS to the MIR station. I managed to dock rather easily after I figured out docking at the ISS. The next plan was to head to the moon from MIR, but I decided that I need to read up on transx or IMFD before I try that.

While looking for tutorials on transx I stumbled onto this forum. I was a bit stunned by the amount of tutorials and resources this forum contains. I think that orbiter just got even more interesting. I looked for a MIR to moon guide for a little bit and couldn't find one using search, but I bet one exists and I just couldn't find it. If anyone could help I would appreciate it.

This video: TransX Tutorial - Earth/Moon Free Return seems to be close, but I'm not sure if it is the best guide to follow from MIR.

 

[River Crab]

to the forums!
I was impressed when I first came here too.
Also, I think that tutorial should work fine, you just won't have as much of a plane change since Mir in Orbiter is more aligned to the Moon's plane.
You're off to a great start, happy orbiting! :hail:

 

[Xyon]

We have some tutorials here too, much of the featured transX tutorials by one flytandem are well worth the reading / watching.

 

[Izack]

to Orbiter-Forum!

There's also a playback tutorial to get to the Moon from Cape Canaveral using TransferMFD (which is probably easier for a beginner to use than TransX) already packaged into Orbiter, in the Tutorials folder on the launchpad. It starts off from Cape Canaveral instead of Mir, but the concepts are very similar either way. The only different thing about going to the Moon from Mir is that you will need a plane-change burn (Open Align-Planes MFD and select the Moon as your target...if you got to the ISS then you already know the rest! :thumbup

 

[N_Molson]

! Docking to the ISS is a good start ! TransX should allow to get from Mir (or anywhere else) to the Moon with a single burn (named "Lunar Off-Plane" if I remember well). I learned it by reading one of those excellent tutorials

 

[Alexw95]

thats a great start i remember when i first came to orbiter i could not dock with the ISS for about a month then i decided to read some tutorials

 

[DuskDragon]

Well I sort of messed up trying to transfer to the moon and I nearly expended all my fuel. I did eventually manage to get into a circular orbit above the moon's equator at about 152.2k. I have about 17% fuel remaining. (on medium/moon range DGIV) The plan is to land at Brighton Beach, but I might not have enough fuel for that.

 

[Alexw95]

you might have enough fuel to get back and thats it

 

[Bloodworth]

to the community. You are off to a better start than I was When I first started, I was using exclusively sci-fi based ships that did a lot of the stuff for you or basically cheated their way around certain things, not that that's a bad thing for a beginner It took me months to figure out how to align a specific orbit, let alone how to rendezvous.

 

[ddom2006]

Keep docking practice up as well :thumbup:, I haven't docked for a few weeks and last night completely got it wrong :lol:. And

 

[DuskDragon]

Well, I managed to get full fuel... I'm now in a ridiculous looking orbit and I would like to land at Brighton Beach. I really have no idea how to change my orbit so that it passes over Brighton.

EDIT:

After watching the tutorial for the DG in the actual orbiter folders, I think I have an idea of how to get close to landing, but slowing down from orbit velocity to just hovering over the pad seems to look very difficult.

EDIT MK2:

I just landed at Brighton Beach! That was really difficult. I think it might have been harder than docking with the ISS and MIR. Managing to zero out your horizontal speed was my initial problem, but after that I only had to wait as I descended on hover thrusters. The DG-IV claimed my landing was at -1 m/s. I am not sure what the specifications on the gear are, but I was hoping they could handle it.