Project Orbital Craft (OK) 1.01 "Buran" development

[DaveS]

Nothing to show for now, knee deep in mesh fixing. I think I got about 95% done right now.

 

[DaveS]

Most of the mesh fixing is done, enough for a first pass of texture mapping to happen. Right now I'm using a tile map found on buran.ru. And so far it looks good. I'm still in need of someone to turn the template texture into a real texture.

 

[4throck]

Doesn't look that bad. Don't know if there are good enough photo sources for a high resolution realistic texture.
You do have modern photos of OK-GLI : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:OK-GLI
I wonder if the tiles are the same...

 

[DaveS]

What I have found has been collected here, most is images/photos from a set of CD-ROMs previously offered through buran.ru: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/27sxqxi94d8fbfq/AAAHKDmXciTqMZK8gQUEGlzFa?dl=0

Of most interest is the photos that have 006-* in their filenames. These are photos of the thermal-vaccum test article, so it is equipped with the actual flight tiles and thermal blankets.

 

[DaveS]

So using the various images as guides, I've got this so far. That's all the tiles on the midbody, excluding the blankets that covers the rest. Once those are in place, I'll move on to the aft body, so I'm working myself aft. I'm saving the more complicated forward body for later. This is slow going but progress is being made. Now this gives me an idea of how tedious it must have been for the KSC Orbiter TPS teams working 24/7 for 1½ to fix up Columbia's TPS ahead of STS-1.

 

[DaveS]

Basic thermal blankets added to the midbody along with tweaks to the tile border color to make them blend into each from a distance better. And yes, the blankets did have an off-white, nearly grey color to them with white blanket interspaces.

 

[4throck]

Looks good! Please consider adding the jets and nose sensor boom, so that we can also have the OK-GLI

 

[DaveS]

TPS work is still on-going. Just finished the sides of the main fuselage as well as the PLBDs.

 

[DaveS]

Now that SSU is pretty much at a standstill, I'm thinking about returning to this project. I have noted quite an issue however and that is while I can finish the mesh and textures, I can't make it fly the way it should in Orbiter. So I need someone who can code an appropriate module for it. So if anyone with advanced coding skills would like to take on the challenge, please reply.

 

[DaveS]

Still looking for someone who can give this an appropriate module, now that the mesh and textures are approaching completion. The mesh is 90% complete, sans a flight deck and the texture is just missing the tiles for the underbody and elevon coves (the gaps between the elevons themselves and the aft body). The screenshot shows a cfg version with the appropriate physical data of a Buran vessel with my mesh and texture attached to Kulch's Energy Project ready for launch.

 

[Urwumpe]

Still looking for someone who can give this an appropriate module, now that the mesh and textures are approaching completion. The mesh is 90% complete, sans a flight deck and the texture is just missing the tiles for the underbody and elevon coves (the gaps between the elevons themselves and the aft body). The screenshot shows a cfg version with the appropriate physical data of a Buran vessel with my mesh and texture attached to Kulch's Energy Project ready for launch.

What exact "software developer friendly" specification has "appropriate?" Like, what features should it have, what should be animated, what simulated? What are the non-functional requirements like the performance or compatibilty to other add-ons?

I don't think I can do this anytime soon, at least not in September. Later in the current year, I might have at least the freetime to create a github repository and setup a base project, so I could help as maintainer/proxy product owner. But generally, this year looks bad for new projects.

Also, @diogom might be a better candidate, since he already went chest deep into the soviet engineering with his Soyuz. @gattispilot might be too busy with his shuttle project, but asking him could also be a good idea. (and please, don't beat me for the mentions.)

 

[gattispilot]

Not sure what you are asking. I imagine I could covert the STS2016 to this.

 

[DaveS]

What exact "software developer friendly" specification has "appropriate?" Like, what features should it have, what should be animated, what simulated? What are the non-functional requirements like the performance or compatibilty to other add-ons?

As far as the features are concerned, I was thinking of appropriate physical behavior as correct RCS and RD-45 operations as well as an accurate aero model for entry and landing. Maybe even adding the offset thrust generated by the APUs. Since this is really about Buran, the only animations would be the TVC animation for the RD-85's and the landing gear.

However, the mesh is set up to allow for easy texture swapping as used in SSU/SSV, so later vehicles could be simulated so PLBD animations could be added along with forward radiator panel deployments along with the directional high gain antennas (Soviet orbiters were to have two of them, one mounted on the aft PLB bulkhead and one extending out of a compartment on the bottom of the aft body).

 

[Urwumpe]

Shouldn't it also get a Kurs antenna?

 

[DaveS]

Shouldn't it also get a Kurs antenna?

I haven't seen one, unless you mean the one mounted on the docking system?

 

[diogom]

What exact "software developer friendly" specification has "appropriate?" Like, what features should it have, what should be animated, what simulated? What are the non-functional requirements like the performance or compatibilty to other add-ons?

I don't think I can do this anytime soon, at least not in September. Later in the current year, I might have at least the freetime to create a github repository and setup a base project, so I could help as maintainer/proxy product owner. But generally, this year looks bad for new projects.

Also, @diogom might be a better candidate, since he already went chest deep into the soviet engineering with his Soyuz. @gattispilot might be too busy with his shuttle project, but asking him could also be a good idea. (and please, don't beat me for the mentions.)

Depending on info available might be doable, without going into 7K depths, though Buran is one I've never looked into much. But my September and possibly October will be chaotic, so even Soyuz is on hold until then. If it's still up when things clear up, I might look into it. Though I'd imagine there would be a few things in common with STS2016, yeah.

 

[gattispilot]

Just let me know. I am on discord also.