Search The Perfect Capsule and its Parent

[Matrix Aran]

I've spent quite alot of time in orbiter happily playing around in my XR series of craft, and before I discovered the joys of D3D9, the DGIV; thoroughly enjoying the myriad of switches and subsystems that keep me busy on my usual trips to the moon and beyond.

I've been looking at doing something more ambitious, and slightly more realistic for some time now: a complex mission to Mars involving several craft. I really want to use something different than the typical XR, and preferably something that would require a few earth launches to prepare.

Idealy I want something like the Arrow, however with at least one extra dock, though I'm open to suggestions. I've played around a bit with the NTR stage that someone once recomended several month back, but I'm not entirely sold on a nuclear rocket, not to mention the limitations the engines have on multiple burns.

More importantly, I'm quite interested in finding the most detailed crew capsule I can get, with as many subsystems and flashing lights making me feel like a fool as possible.

Are there any craft out currently that fit this bill? Or, if not, well perhaps this might show there's at least a market of one for capsules and craft like these.

 

[ED_4]

Only one capsule that I know fits that bill. But it's not designed for Mars, rather to the moon. And that is NASSP's Apollo. As for anyone else following in that detail of a panel, I have yet to hear of one being made.

 

[Codz]

The Antares capsule and the Deepstar.

 

[Matrix Aran]

Only one capsule that I know fits that bill. But it's not designed for Mars, rather to the moon. And that is NASSP's Apollo. As for anyone else following in that detail of a panel, I have yet to hear of one being made.

That is precisely the capsule I'd use for my benchmark, it's a truly wonderful recreation of the original. I do admit I have thought of pulling it out of mothballs and attaching it to a newer launcher, but I'm just a bit opposed to sending my astronauts to Mars in a capsule from the late 60s.

The Antares capsule and the Deepstar.

I remember tinkering with the Deepstar a few years back, though as I recall it ran solely off of keystrokes, or am I thinking of a different ship? In any case I wasn't aware of it getting an update for Orbiter 2010. Does it still work?

I've looked at Antares but I've never seen a feature list of just how much is modeled on-board that vessel, or what it's endurance is like.

It might sound like I'm being picky, so just to be clear, I'd either like a very detailed capsule that can make the trip, and a booster that's just good enough to get the capsule and a lander out to Mars (duct-tape and a bunch of S-IVB's anyone?), or a detailed mother-ship with a capsule for earth return, and a lander for Mars.

 

[Codz]

The Antares has a clickable VC and a wide variety of systems and animations. It's not quite at the detail level of NASSP, but it's close. Also, the Deepstar does have an update for 2010P1.

 

[Matrix Aran]

The Antares has a clickable VC and a wide variety of systems and animations. It's not quite at the detail level of NASSP, but it's close. Also, the Deepstar does have an update for 2010P1.

I admit I'm not a huge fan of virtual cockpits, but the Antares does seem like a very robust capsule, so I'll have to run a few tests to see if it can really fit the bill, though the lack of a traditional 2D cockpit is a bit of a big downer.

The Deepstar is sadly just as I remember it. While quite beautifully modeled on the exterior, and looking a lot more realistic in design than the Arrow freighter, it still lacks a decent cockpit and systems; a fact which really doesn't make it much more interesting to fly than said stack of S-IVBs.

 

[Codz]

A far as I know, Deepstar and the Arrow are the only semi realistic deep spacecraft available for 2010P1.

 

[werdna]

What about Descartes? It's much more plausible than the arrow, and has three docking ports. The TI version is wonderful, and there is a nice interior docking bay for a capsule of your choice- the bay doors even open and close. It would be perfect!

 

[Codz]

Must've forgotten about that one. Very nice spacecraft indeed.

 

[werdna]

Must've forgotten about that one. Very nice spacecraft indeed.

http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3834

 

[Matrix Aran]

Sadly I can't seem to get the DESCARTES to run under D3D9, and I've found a few glitches with the Antares under D3D9, namely that the forward windows aren't properly redering as transparent, so instead of windows I have two blue pastel cutouts for infront of them.

Another piece of sad news is that the maximum amount of oxygen the Antares can carry is about 6 months worth for a crew of 6, and the optional habitat module was designed for a crew of two in mind. By the look of the video trailer for the addon the design was aimed more at Venus rather than Mars, so its steadily slipping down the list of candidates, though it would still make an excellent crew transfer vessel for a mother-ship, provided I can find a way to fix the windows.

 

[K_Jameson]

Another piece of sad news is that the maximum amount of oxygen the Antares can carry is about 6 months worth for a crew of 6, and the optional habitat module was designed for a crew of two in mind. By the look of the video trailer for the addon the design was aimed more at Venus rather than Mars, so its steadily slipping down the list of candidates, though it would still make an excellent crew transfer vessel for a mother-ship, provided I can find a way to fix the windows.

The Venus trip was only a demonstrative deep-space mission (basically an "Apollo 8 style" test). The ultimate goal for Antares is Mars, but a complete Mars mission is not an immediate plan of the FOI team. Currently, we are in the preliminary study of a complex lunar scenario that will involve Antares, a new large lunar lander and an inflatable habitat in a LOR-LOR type mission.

 

[Cras]

Antares is limited by the fact it has no lander. You can take it places, but only for sight seeing. Not going to be able to land anywhere. At least not until the lander is released.

Not sure why you have trouble with it under D3D9. I use D3D9 almost exclusively, and have not seen the blue issue you reported.

 

[Matrix Aran]

It's been about a week and change since I last loaded it up so I can't really recall if I tested it on my D3D11 clean install aswell to see if it had an issue there as well. More than likely its probably something else I have installed conflicting with it, but I haven't had the time to go rooting around for a fix.

The lack of a lander for Antares isn't too much of a problem if I could find a suitable mother-ship with more than one docking port, but being the picky sort that I am, I've yet to find one I like.

Lately I've been trying to look into finding a booster or other craft that I could re-purpose as a disposable booster to dock with a spare space station module serving as a habitat that would have a Dragon or Antares capsule docked to the other end and just send the whole stack to Mars. I imagine lots of duct-tape would be involved.