Orbiter Screenshot Thread

[Piorun]

I'm targetting Jupiter, so yeah

It might be a good idea to use Pioneer One as a "spacecraft carrier" for Delta-glider or a dedicated lander - the interplanetary ship enters into orbit around Jupiter (or even Saturn, because why not ), and soon thereafter its Delta-gliders or landers depart to explore moons - this is how I see manned exploration of the outer Solar System in a few decades

 

[LordCroussette]

It might be a good idea to use Pioneer One as a "spacecraft carrier" for Delta-glider or a dedicated lander - the interplanetary ship enters into orbit around Jupiter (or even Saturn, because why not ), and soon thereafter its Delta-gliders or landers depart to explore moons - this is how I see manned exploration of the outer Solar System in a few decades

That's exactly what I am doing!

I did wonder early on what to use for landings, because I definitely plan to land on the Galilean moons. My original idea was to put a port under the ship to allow the Deltaglider to dock flat to it, a bit like the port in the cargo-bay of the Arrow Freighter.

But, eventually, I came up with an idea. At the back, I intend to put six engines. So, I thought, why not remove one of the engine and the module its connected to and replace them with a landing craft?


While I like the idea, I realised it would be a bit of a pain to use. So, ultimately, I opted for another solution:


You can see the back of the ship as it will be once Pioneer One is completed (14 flights left before it's done :O). There are four cockpit modules at the front of the propulsion section. Well, they are actually placeholders. What will really be there are the pods of Pioneer One (which will serve as landing crafts). There will be four. One for each Galilean moon!

I don't know yet how the pods will look like. To be honest, I don't know how to model them. It's a bit of an endeavour I'm taking since I will need to learn how to make animation for them to deploy landing legs.

But, for now, I think they will be something like this:


Basically, the pod will have four landing legs and engines at the back (main) and engines on the belly (hover) (+maybe a single one at the front for retro, but shouldn't be necessary). The docking port at the back (to attach to the main craft), will also serve as a airlock to allow for some astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon (which will come from @jacquesmomo 's version of the VesselBuilder UMMUs he's working on that I want to adapt for the pods.

With that, the pod will allow the crew of Pioneer One (me) to land on the moons of Jupiter and explore them a bit! Gonna be exciting!

(I need to finish the main ship first, though)

 

[jacquesmomo]

viendra de @jacquesmomo La version des UMMU de VesselBuilder sur laquelle il travaille que je veux adapter pour les pods.

Avec ça, le pod permettra à l'équipage de Pioneer One (moi) d'atterrir sur les lunes de Jupiter et de les explorer un peu ! Ça va être excitant !

(Je dois d'abord terminer le vaisseau principal, cependant)

Ça commence à marcher...

 

[Max-Q]

Apollo 16 @ Descartes:

Working on the slope of Stone Mountain with the LM in the far background


At the rim of North Ray crater


EVA closeout after 3 days of exploration

 

[LordCroussette]

Made some hangars for the Quebec airport.

 

[Piorun]

LIM-49A Spartan (here ascending over Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex) was an American long-range anti-ballistic missile which derived from the earlier XLIM-49 Nike Zeus B ABM, and which constituted the exo-atmospheric component of the Safeguard system. The Spartan was less fortunate than its Soviet counterparts - A-350 and 51T6, as it remained in service for only a few months of 1975, when the entire Safeguard program was canceled.

 

[LordCroussette]

On the surface of Io.

 

[francisdrake]

Using the rear docking port developed for the Hubble reboost allows Dragon to reverse-dock to the ISS and boost the ISS orbit.
This can raise the orbit by ~20 km per mission.

 

[dgatsoulis]

Nagata beating the Ravenstar in a suborbital race. Turbopacks are more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

 

[LordCroussette]

There is now somewhere at Quebec where you can park your XR-2 to protect it from the cold and the rain/snow.

 

[Max-Q]

A grand adventure awaits:
The Apollo 17 Saturn V stands ready in the glare of the floodlights against the night sky.

 

[LordCroussette]

SSM-64: First flight of Space Shuttle Endurance! And, it is also the first Space Shuttle take-off from Pelee Island! First mission to start and end in Canada!






However, as fun as it was, the Multistage autopilot seemed to struggle a lot from launching at such a high lattitude. Released me in a 111km x 550km orbit, even if the target was 340 x 340. Still, I managed to correct it to the ISS's altitude to dock and return home.

But that really put into jeopardy Pelee as a launch site for space shuttles in the future...

 

[Max-Q]

Found some Apollo 15 screenshots from a couple months ago:

Hadley-Apennine, still emerging from the shadows.


Final REV before powered descent; Falcon is flying free.


Solo Earthrise


Standing by for sunset as Falcon prepares for PDI


Tsiolkovskiy crater


Leaving. Falcon lifts off and heads for orbit after 3 days of exploration

 

[LordCroussette]

And hop! A new module added to Pioneer One!

 

[LordCroussette]

And another module! Now all that's left are the two engines at the back and the length of the ship will be completed!
But only the length. There's still four modules to place on the sides to actually complete the ship, which will be launched first before the engines.

 

[LordCroussette]

New day, new module (let's ignore the fact its two hours from midnight lmao)

It's been 17 flights since I began the assembly of the spaceship. Ten more to go!

The full spreadsheet on Google Spreadsheets.

 

[Dantassii]

Reminds me of my IMS lunar station... Using the XR-5 out of Brighton Beach I did 282 flights to reach Initial Operating Assembly. Based on how much was needed to complete the station, it would have taken another 1100 flights or there abouts to bring up the rest of the modules. IOA was about 1/4th of the final design.

Dantassii

 

[LordCroussette]

Launch of SSM-68 today.

Module installed!

Can't even see the whole thing in my windows lol

Reentry.

And landed.

With this mission over, I officially flew half the number of Space Shuttle missions NASA did from launch to landing! Another 67 to go before SSM-135 lmao

 

[LordCroussette]

I launched SSM-69 (nice) today! Mission is the same as the previous ones: send a module up there!
(Also, I have no idea what addon the gibberish at the bottom of the screen come from.)

That's a new one. I guess I messed with the multistage config file to move the exhaust of one of the shuttle's engines to align more properly (which I failed at doing so) and I guessed I accidently broke something because Multistage didn't jettison the SRBs. Thankfully, one key-press and Olympic was back on its proper course. And the config file is easy enough to fix: just put the original back in!

Space Shuttle Olympic is in orbit!

Module attached. Only one module left! (Along with six engines and four pods).

Post reentry. Couldn't see my landing site! I'm lucky I managed to align perfectly!

And landed! This is a very nice shot

 

[LordCroussette]

The daily Pioneer One update! The last module was added today!

Now all that are left are the engines and Pioneer One will be fully assembled!

(The four Gallilean landers will have to be launched as well before the ship can depart for Jupiter, though. Might bring it around for a Earth-Moon-Earth test drive though )