Orbiter Screenshot Thread

[Pipcard]

That cargo pod on the TX is more epic than the Airbus Beluga!

 

[garyw]

That cargo pod on the TX is more epic than the Airbus Beluga!

Yup it is (thanks Loru!) And what's more amazing is that the cargo weighed in at 78tons and the TX still made Wommera from Ascension with just enough fuel to spare for landing. Pretty impressive performance stats.

 

[Loru]

In the meantime on CSSC:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

OK, Gary, where do I get one of those?!?!? I want one so bad...
In other words...

 

[garyw]

The cargo pod? It was designed courtesy of Loru. I'll see if he'll upload it to OH.

Wait until you see the rest of the temp base and the mission....

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Field in sight...

Buran returns to Earth.

In the HAC turn with Carl Sagan Space Center in view, Buran must land here due to weather conditions at SRC Polygon.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

The Ares Express Mars orbiter approaching Mars 1 hour before MOI burn, September 11, 2016. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on March 4.

One of the three "Tri-Ace" orbiters designed for detailed planetary surveying operated by the Canadian Space Agency and a worldwide group of planetary studies institutions (*), it will replace the 10 year old Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as the main Mars surface studies orbiter for the next decade. Over the next few months it will lower its orbit and change its inclination through aerobraking to the final mapping orbit.

Valles Marineris can be seen on the left of the spacecraft, and the crater basin of Argyre Planitia can be seen right off the right solar panel. The south pole ice cap is on the right hand side.

(*) The other two are Artemis Express, in orbit around the Moon since January 2016, and Aphrodite Express, scheduled to launch to Venus in early December. All of them use the same spacecraft bus and the same main science instruments (with tweaking for different planetary environments), saving lots of time and expenditures while still achieving the main science objectives.

P.S. This is a major milestone for my Orbiter adventures - after at least 2 years playing with it, I finally made the huge leap to BEO and this is my first planetary encounter! While the final Martian orbit isn't very good (210 x 5000 km x 120 deg. with 5% fuel left; planned 200 x 200 km x 90 deg.), considering that this is only my first attempt this is already very good!

P.P.S. A second try from TMI-2 3 days before MOI now yields a 205 x 24600 km x 90.8 deg. orbit, which I now uses as the baseline. The higher apoapsis allows for studies of the Mars particle field at farther distances (e.g. the real Mars Express has an apoapsis of 10000 km), plus chances of using aerobraking to lower the orbit later on.

P.P.P.S. Aerobraking saves the day! By lowering the periapsis to 80 km (the aerodynamic forces shouldn't be too hard on the spacecraft), I was able to make it to a circular 200 km orbit in less than 3 weeks with only very little amount of fuel used. Looks like that means my aerospace company has got the planetary spacecraft operations license. :thumbup:

 

[IronRain]

The Ares Express Mars orbiter approaching Mars 1 hour before MOI burn, September 11, 2016. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on March 4.

One of the three "Tri-Ace" orbiters designed for detailed planetary surveying operated by the Canadian Space Agency and a worldwide group of planetary studies institutions (*), it will replace the 10 year old Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as the main Mars surface studies orbiter for the next decade. Over the next few months it will lower its orbit and change its inclination through aerobraking to the final mapping orbit.

Valles Marineris can be seen on the left of the spacecraft, and the crater basin of Argyre Planitia can be seen right off the right solar panel. The south pole ice cap is on the right hand side.

(*) The other two are Artemis Express, in orbit around the Moon since January 2016, and Aphrodite Express, scheduled to launch to Venus in early December. All of them use the same spacecraft bus and the same main science instruments (with tweaking for different planetary environments), saving lots of time and expenditures while still achieving the main science objectives.

P.S. This is a major milestone for my Orbiter adventures - after at least 2 years playing with it, I finally made the huge leap to BEO and this is my first planetary encounter! While the final Martian orbit isn't very good (210 x 5000 km x 120 deg. with 5% fuel left; planned 200 x 200 km x 90 deg.), considering that this is only my first attempt this is already very good!

P.P.S. A second try from TMI-2 3 days before MOI now yields a 205 x 24600 km x 90.8 deg. orbit, which I now uses as the baseline. The higher apoapsis allows for studies of the Mars particle field at farther distances (e.g. the real Mars Express has an apoapsis of 10000 km), plus chances of using aerobraking to lower the orbit later on.

P.P.P.S. Aerobraking saves the day! By lowering the periapsis to 80 km (the aerodynamic forces shouldn't be too hard on the spacecraft), I was able to make it to a circular 200 km orbit in less than 3 weeks with only very little amount of fuel used. Looks like that means my aerospace company has got the planetary spacecraft operations license. :thumbup:

Congratulations! A big milestone indeed, great work

Technicians at CSSC are preparing the Themis launch vehicle for the arrival of the fairing. Themis will launch the DSCS in a high lunar orbit for communication purposes.

 

[Pipcard]

launch the DSCS in a high lunar orbit for communication purposes.

Wasn't that the first mission for OFMM v2.0 last year? (but with a Neptune-1 launch vehicle instead)

 

[MaverickSawyer]

It was indeed. Who ran that flight, anyways?

 

[Pipcard]

It was indeed. Who ran that flight, anyways?

dgatsoulis.

 

[IronRain]

You already gave the answer I wasn't aware of that though. My DSCS mission is not a copy from then.

 

[Interceptor]

Reusable TSTO is the way to go!

Hey Pipcard what addon did you get that Orion spaceplane from?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

It should be Worlds of 2001... [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1932"]World of 2001 v3.11[/ame]

 

[SpaceShuttleFan]

Skygate Aerospace's first XR2 goes for a quick loop around the Cape.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Pretty!

 

[Loru]

---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:41 PM ----------

 

[Pipcard]

Delta II - separation of six ground-lit solid motors (and ignition of three air-lit motors)

 

[Loru]

XR3 mating rituals occur only 2 days before full moon.
(Presented by David Attenborough)

---------- Post added at 10:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:12 AM ----------

Due to budget cuts we're not taking Azure Rovers

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Nice! I love those new rovers.