Orbiter-based short stories, anyone?

francisdrake

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We do have a screen-shot thread and an impressive video thread, but I wonder if somebody has ever written stories based on Orbiter experiences?

I think Orbiter would be a perfect tool to prove your story or adventure could be real. The simulation gives an excellent feeling of an astronauts thrill to get things done right, reach the desired orbit, time the burn correctly, cope with limited fuel, etc.

If this is completed with the 'human touch' of living in narrow spaces for long times, the troubles of zero-gee, communications delay and the danger of vacuum and radiation only being a few millimeters away, that alone would pay for some claustrophobic stories in a vast, endless outer space.

And if we look a few years into the future, assuming commercial spaceflight succeeds, with commerce also greed and fear will come to the high frontier. Not only well trained and disciplined astronauts will be in space, but people with more dubious motivations and behavior ...

Anybody having a story and willing to publish it, is invited to post it here. To simplify reading I suggest to post a link to a zip, txt, or pdf file only.
 

Wishbone

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The thrill of a landing on Io,
the beauty of Jupiter in the heaven...
Dosimeter shows off-scale high.
 

Izack

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I've written several short and long stories set in spacecraft, but nothing specifically Orbiter-related. The closest call was the outline I didn't even finish for my Andromeda project a few months ago (which eventually manifested itself in a blog post HERE.)

The main thing which has separated my Orbiter and literary experiences is that I like using ideas and designs which are 100% my own. So, I don't like writing about a person taking a flight in an XR-2, and since I can't develop addons I can't fly my own spaceplane design in Orbiter. (Although, I am working to amend the latter, by delving little by little into the wizardry of C++.)

The concept of an Orbiter-based story is a little interesting, and I would certainly read one posted here provided it was more than Deltaglider-IV 'fanfic.' :lol:

Don't expect any from me in the near future, though.
 

Artlav

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francisdrake

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I agree that some well-placed screen shots can do a lot to convey the story to the reader. I would not consider them mandatory, if the story is 'graphic' enough :)

For the txt or pdf format: I think (being not sure) the length of a post is limited, so a longer story has to be split up into several parts when posted directly in the forum. If other users post at the same time, the story may be interspersed, making it somewhat difficult to follow. Also for easier reading I prefer the size and font adjustments of an external program over reading long text in a browser window, but this is just a personal preference.
 

IgnoreThisBarrel

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Any plans on ever finishing that? I enjoyed it. :)
Same here. I've read it through about three times now. Entertaining and also a great story!

"And the world below looks surprisingly different from what the stupid on-board computer keeps insisting it flies over."
"That one is tricky to get down to. It's full of air and it's full of water. Yet, after hitting a board from low orbit on the Oven, it's no big deal."
 

T.Neo

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Ok, I'll start:

Once upon a time there was a DGIV.

The pilot took off in the DGIV, circled the runway, then attempted landing. The pilot crushed the landing gear because he didn't dump enough fuel.

The End.

I sure know how to write a scintillating story! :rofl:
 

Columbia42

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I have a few Orbiter-related short stories (with a few screenshots) but they are written and not typed and, not having a scanner, it would take a lot of time to type them up. When I get around to it I will post them later.
 

astrosammy

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I think I'll try it when I have holidays. Following incident happened to me:

I launched a X-15 Delta on a Soyuz core stage with boosters and no second stage (Soyuz-FG by Thorton). I docked it to a Salyut space station, but used up my deorbit fuel. The X-15 Delta still needs to be rescued before supplys run out.

Might become a nice story, with rescue by Progress or STS.
 

Columbia42

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Here are a few things I wrote a while ago. Just introductions to stories that may never be written.

This one's about the exploration of the Gliese 581 system (specifically Gliese 581 g). No screenshots yet as most of these addons don't exist.
View attachment 6141

This one's the beginning of a story about the exploration of Europa using the N1-L3 Russian moon mission hardware (never really flown). Sort of a weird idea but I figured that with a system like this or Apollo you could (in Orbiter) fly to any planet in the solar system provided you have the proper aerobraking shields. So I plotted some trajectories to other planets and wrote about a few of them. (The rest of this one is written rather than typed so after I type it up I'll post it.) A few screenshots but regrettably I didn't get any of the actual landing or EVAs on Europa. The N1-L3 addon used is one I sloppily put together from models from the Celestia N1 addon. It is a minimally functional Spacecraft3/Multistage2 version without many textures.
View attachment 6142
 
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MeDiCS

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Well, my only blog post is a short, badly written, 'based on real events' flight log. Does that count?
 

Izack

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Well, my only blog post is a short, badly written, 'based on real events' flight log. Does that count?
You've probably figured this out by now, but the Deltaglider-IV uses 'B' instead of 'CTRL+B' for the airbrake. :p

Mr. Meines should have R'd his FM. :rofl:

Not a bad flight log, though it is, as you said, badly written. By that I mean it's written like a blog post and not a story, so no harm intended.
 

mc_

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I've been thinking about somethig like this, but... good story needs some idea (stuff to think about), illustrate author's opinion on something, and/or it must be interesting (funny at least;) ).

I've had some writing experience before - short stories, one scenery for scenical performance (it was about how to write a scenery :D ), but it was years ago so i just can't start. Maybe i need to stop playing online games. Or, maybe, i need a muse (not bad while my girlfriend found a guy, who has more money than i). Or, maybe, i'm just have too high opinion about myself.

Anyway, if i'll be writing somethig (~5% chance or so), language will not be English.

Orbiter (with some help of the :probe:) can be a good starting point, i'm sure.
 

rseferino

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It's interesting. I used Orbiter to some stories, two stories ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction"]fanfiction[/ame]) Robotech series. In a simulated trip from the orbit of Pluto in a hyperbolic orbit from Saturn and Mars to Earth. The other story a kind of reconnaissance mission of a spacecraft in orbit high above the moon up close flyby. Of course, these two stories are in Spanish and my English not good enough to translate.
 

francisdrake

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Yesterday I tried Google translator on a story I wrote some time ago, in German language. While the translation to English is far from perfect (and sometimes quite laughable :) ) it gives a starting point. It saves you from typing each and every word, so you can concentrate on improving the translation rather starting from scratch.
Maybe this could be an option for all non-native-english speakers?

Personally I agree a good story should have an idea to be based on. But I surely would also read a flight log, if it is written well.
 

MeDiCS

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You've probably figured this out by now, but the Deltaglider-IV uses 'B' instead of 'CTRL+B' for the airbrake. :p

Mr. Meines should have R'd his FM. :rofl:

Not a bad flight log, though it is, as you said, badly written. By that I mean it's written like a blog post and not a story, so no harm intended.
Now, would you look at that. My first review, and one that doesn't contain the word 'horrific'! Where did I left that champagne bottle...

:cheers:


(Oh, and I'll pass your suggestion to Mr. Meines ;))
 

francisdrake

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Here is the English translation of a story I wrote some time ago, about 6 pages long. It is about the risky business of satellite maintenance in the Van-Allen belt, somewhere in the mid 21st century. I used the Google translation tool and tried to make it readable afterwards :)

Although it is not strictly Orbiter stuff (no addons or screenshots) it still reflects experiences gained while flying Orbiter, like orbital transfers, docking in space, performing spacewalks, etc.

Have fun reading it! And I sure hope to read more stories from all of you! Those already published are really promising ...

Link to file: View attachment Prometheus_engl.pdf
 
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