New beta 121129 is available on orbithangar.com (for link see first post).
Amongst a few other things, I have worked on the Atlantis launch autopilot (this was necessary due to the new Atlantis implementation as a docked assembly). It should be a bit more realistic than the old system (no more fake RCS system for ascent attitude control. Everything is done by SSME and SRB gimballing. The Isp values for the SSMEs should now be realistic). I haven't implemented the OMS burns yet. The autopilot terminates at ET separation.
Maybe one of the experts from the SSU team might want to have a look at it and provide some criticism. I tried to optimise the launch profile, but don't quite seem to get the exactly same profile as published for the shuttle (the dip after the initial altitude maximum seems a bit too deep). For the profile optimisation I tried to maximise the area of the orbit at MECO, a^2 sqrt(1-e^2). Is there a better parameter to use as an objective function?
The autopilot is now implemented directly in the Atlantis code, rather than as a Lua script (although I want to allow users to modify its parameters via Lua). To access it, open the Atlantis function menu (Ctrl-Space) and select Launch autopilot.
Amongst a few other things, I have worked on the Atlantis launch autopilot (this was necessary due to the new Atlantis implementation as a docked assembly). It should be a bit more realistic than the old system (no more fake RCS system for ascent attitude control. Everything is done by SSME and SRB gimballing. The Isp values for the SSMEs should now be realistic). I haven't implemented the OMS burns yet. The autopilot terminates at ET separation.
Maybe one of the experts from the SSU team might want to have a look at it and provide some criticism. I tried to optimise the launch profile, but don't quite seem to get the exactly same profile as published for the shuttle (the dip after the initial altitude maximum seems a bit too deep). For the profile optimisation I tried to maximise the area of the orbit at MECO, a^2 sqrt(1-e^2). Is there a better parameter to use as an objective function?
The autopilot is now implemented directly in the Atlantis code, rather than as a Lua script (although I want to allow users to modify its parameters via Lua). To access it, open the Atlantis function menu (Ctrl-Space) and select Launch autopilot.