Spacecraft Soyuz 7K for Orbiter 2016

[Gargantua2024]

Found a very, very old addon (built for Orbiter 2002!) depicting the Almaz from the AVSIM Library. The mesh is very simple in O2016 standards though, but this will do for simulating Soyuz 7K-T/A9 missions going to Salyut 3 and Salyut 5!

Salyut 2/Almaz 1

• None (Destroyed in orbit)

Salyut 3/Almaz 2

• Soyuz 14
• Soyuz 15

Salyut 5/Almaz 3

• Soyuz 21
• Soyuz 23
• Soyuz 24

Both Soyuz 15 and 23 failed to dock with their respective stations

 

[Sbb1413]

Yet another CTD when I open "Soyuz visit" scenarios under the "Skylab B" folder. Here is the log (again posted as a TXT file instead of a LOG file due to upload limitations):

 

[Gargantua2024]

Yet another CTD when I open "Soyuz visit" scenarios under the "Skylab B" folder. Here is the log (again posted as a TXT file instead of a LOG file due to upload limitations):

Weird, both Skylab and Skylab B scenarios work fine in my installation. Yet again, the logs tell that there are unspecified meshes missing...have you tried creating symbolic links for SC3/4 in D3D9? Not certain what would happen, just a wild guess on my part

 

[Gargantua2024]

Decided to modify the Almaz mesh so that it could properly fit onto a Proton rocket. Scaled up to 25% in all axes


Solar array and antenna animations will be added later

Docking port now matches Soyuz as well....

EDIT: Just found out in the AVSIM description that the original addon author of Almaz is McDope, all credit goes to him

 

[4throck]

Great work. The simple meshes are fine, as long as they are accurate. Your scaling seems correct!

 

[Sbb1413]

Weird, both Skylab and Skylab B scenarios work fine in my installation. Yet again, the logs tell that there are unspecified meshes missing...have you tried creating symbolic links for SC3/4 in D3D9? Not certain what would happen, just a wild guess on my part

@Gargantua2024 Thanks! I have created a symbolic link and copied Skylab I.ini to Skylab.ini, and it works! You should replace "Skylab-I" to "Skylab I".

 

[Gargantua2024]

Great work. The simple meshes are fine, as long as they are accurate. Your scaling seems correct!

Thanks 4throck!

@Gargantua2024 Thanks! I have created a symbolic link and copied Skylab I.ini to Skylab.ini, and it works! You should replace "Skylab-I" to "Skylab I".

Personally I prefer the "Skylab"-only name for the station, you could change it if you'd like to

 

[Gargantua2024]

Making the Proton fairing designed for Almaz....



Used the Proton (Zvezda) fairing mesh as a base to create the cone, then scaled it down to match the forward section of the station hull

 

[Gargantua2024]

Now implemented....

 

[Sbb1413]

@Gargantua2024 Now add solar panel animations in Almaz. Looks good!

 

[Gargantua2024]

The launch of Salyut 6 updated for Orbiter 2016...

 

[Sbb1413]

@Gargantua2024 Wow, great! For Salyut 7 launch, "you could repaint Salyut 6 or Mir's core module" per @4throck.

Edit: Thanks to @MaxBuzz for his Salyut 7 design, which acording to @Gargantua2024 is "absolutely amazing".

 

[Gargantua2024]

No need to repaint Salyut 6 because MaxBuzz has developed his own Salyut 7 addon on his Mir station complex thread, and it is absolutely amazing!
First development images for Salyut 7 start at Page 8 of the thread

 

[Gargantua2024]

So, I went ahead practice my novice skills in Blender to modify Almaz's solar arrays to match the illustrations. Since I do not know yet how to texture objects on Blender, I simply scaled down and duplicated the original solar array mesh groups and moved them to the desired positions....

Not entirely matched but I think I'm satisfied with the result...

Comparison from Encyclopedia Astronautica....


EDIT: It is still a mystery to me how the solar arrays are folded before launch and deployed in orbit, though. Any help in finding some information how the solar arrays work on Almaz are deeply appreciated

 

[4throck]

To texture you need to UV map. In simple words, you'll map your texture pixel coordinates to your mesh surface coordinates.
Look here:

Learning Blender 3D UVW maps and unwrapping a mesh : KatsBits TUTORIALS

www.katsbits.com

 

[Gargantua2024]

I think now I've got an idea on how the Almaz arrays work! In the NOVA documentary "Astrospies", there's an archive footage at 19:36 showing solar arrays being tested...it wasn't identified if it was MOL's or Almaz's, but it closely resembles the design used from the latter!

 

[Gargantua2024]

Salyut 4 launching from a Proton-K in Orbiter 2016....



Solar array animations will be added later...

 

[Sbb1413]

@Gargantua2024 You should lengthen the black fairing to fit the space station.

 

[Gargantua2024]

The fairing type used in the (civilian) Salyut program, and later the Mir core and Zvezda, are designed intentionally to only cover the smaller portions of the stations. The larger section is left exposed on the pad.

In the launches of Salyut 1 (left) and Zvezda (right) for example, you can clearly see their aft components are exposed during launch....

 

[Gargantua2024]

Making the Proton fairing used during the launch of Salyut 1 and its ill-fated unnamed twin, DOS-2...

Again, the base model used is derived from Proton (Zvezda)'s to create this fairing

NOTE: Cosmos 557 is the ill-fated identical twin of Salyut 4, and therefore due to the arrangement of its solar panels, it is highly unlikely it sported fairings of the same design as Salyut 1