What do you do in Orbiter?

[jedidia]

everyone is talking about the Vespucci, so I thought I'd have a look at it... and found it's not on Orbithangar, at least it was not found by the search. Where can I get it?

 

[Kelpie]

I have set up lots of bases and stations on and about the moon and just bounce around between them using as many different craft as possible and chill out

 

[silent_protagonist]

everyone is talking about the Vespucci, so I thought I'd have a look at it... and found it's not on Orbithangar, at least it was not found by the search. Where can I get it?

http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=473

4) I have an ongoing meta-scenario involving a Vespucci-D called Trinity which wanders round the system circa 2100. She has an Eagle-Merlin and a Delta Glider V to visit here and there. This one I write up as fiction.

I do something similar sometimes. I have a running scenario with a stock DG that I try to bounce around the solar system in using only slingshots and minor course corrections (<100 m/s using the rcs, I haven't ignited the mains since I left Earth.) Not very realistic but it's a fun exercise in celestial mechanics.

 

[flytandem]

I often only get time to play with Orbiter perhaps twice a day. For fun I sometimes set up a real time launch from my home base in California and fly real time to a TLI usually within the first orbit. The plan is to transfer to the moon with an arrival that matches when I will be able to get back to the computer in real life. Then while I'm out all day (or sleeping all night) the flight continues to be simulated in real time. I arrive back at the computer to handle the last minutes corrections and the orbit insertion and finally landing. Then I launch and orbit to the TEI and plan a departure speed so that I arrive again at Earth when I am planning to be back at the computer. Real life is just a distraction from a real time simulation. I fear if the graphics get any better in Orbiter, it may become difficult to distinguish which is real and which is the simulation. They say if you can remember the 60s, then you weren't really there.

 

[Belisarius]

Then while I'm out all day (or sleeping all night) the flight continues to be simulated in real time. I arrive back at the computer to handle the last minutes corrections and the orbit insertion and finally landing. Then I launch and orbit to the TEI and plan a departure speed so that I arrive again at Earth when I am planning to be back at the computer.

What happens when you want to go to Mars? Are you gonna leave the 'puter running for 7 months?

 

[chudsosoft]

I only fly the DGIV these days. I can reliably sync and dock with ISS. I've also gotten pretty good at doing manual landings at Brighton Beach on the Moon. I enjoy doing these two things quite a bit. After landing at Brighton, I sometimes take the time to Buck Rogers my way back home. I suck at using imfd, and even though I've worked through a dozen tutorials on returning to Earth from the Moon, I still can't do it with any sort of accuracy. I mainly just point, shoot, and cross my fingers. Perhaps one day I'll learn to fly another spacecraft, or figure out how to leave the Earth-Moon system. Perhaps.

 

[razgriz31m]

get into orbit then exit

 

[flytandem]

What happens when you want to go to Mars? Are you gonna leave the 'puter running for 7 months?

You're welcome to go for it. That's why wrt realtime flights I've limited myself to doing a moon and back in 24 hours. With a stock DG there is enough fuel to do the round trip in 24 hours with 1 refueling at Brighton Beach.

My longest flight was something like 60 hours computer time spread over a week real time and elapsed about 400 years sim time. No refueling. Included flybys at each planet plus one dwarf if that's what they call Pluto these days.

 

[henrik]

I do these things mainly:

1) LEO flights with Shuttle Fleet to ISS.

2) Easy LEO flights to ISS with DGIV

3) Experimental flights with DGIV

4) NASSP as realistically as possible

What limits me a bit is that I'm a bit of a "purist" when it comes to simulators, so I never accelerate time. That means that all flights take me quite some time so I don't normally go beyond LEO. My longest flight was 14.5 days, but since I couldn't keep the simulation running at all times, it took me several months to complete.

 

[mrspacely]

I use the DG4 & XR-5 (just started learning the systems for the XR-5) exclusively.. I've been a ms flight simulator fan since the early days and like to fly from my hometown to KSC, manually launch into orbit with orbiter, rendezvous with ISS, and either transfer to Mir, or the moon, in which I usually just go for a manual descent onto Brighton Beach, or Prelude II which I set up as being right next to Brighton Beach so the rail car goes into Prelude (something I thought looks kinda cool). I like to use UMmu between ISS, XR-5, DG4, & Prelude to simulate shuttling passengers to and from the moon. It took me awhile to learn to do lunar returns, but now transx is becoming easier for me to figure out. Next goal: Martian return!

I love time acceleration too, I spend enough 'real' time on flight simulator that I feel I can cheat with Orbiter!

I also love using Orbiter as a jukebox too, I like making huge mp3 playlists and them setting them on random, so I can have music playing and something cool on my screen (camera view of earth rotating @ 100x speed) if I dont feel like flying.

 

[Belisarius]

I also love using Orbiter as a jukebox too, I like making huge mp3 playlists and them setting them on random, so I can have music playing and something cool on my screen (camera view of earth rotating @ 100x speed) if I dont feel like flying.

Me too. See my note above about being far enough out to see the planetary system in motion. For Earth/Moon 380K km is just peachy. That way the moon swings right in front of you.

 

[jedidia]

http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=473

darn, it's written with two c's. Of course I didn't find it :dry:

thanks!

 

[paintgun]

I, myself, am new to Orbiter. D/L'd it a few days ago. Instantly hooked. I've always been a big fan of the space program. I mainly fly the Apollo missions. I like those mostly because Apollo 11 launched on my 9th birthday. Ooops. Just gave away my age. But occasionally I fly the Shuttle missions.

 

[Marcel]

My original intention was to fly historical missions in chronological sequence, building up my skills with the goal of landing on the moon and returning safely to Earth, to coin a phrase. I downloaded Earth 1962 for this, but unfortunately, newbe that I was, I didn't realize that the version I downloaded was for an earlier version of Orbiter so it didn't work. I instead used the stock Delta Glider to get myself into orbit and back and learned how to adjust my apoapsis and periapsis and to go from equatorial to polar orbit and back. I then found Kev's F-19 on Orbit Hanger Mods. The F-19 probably has the most interesting history of any aircraft that never actually existed. I won't go into it here, but when I found it I happened to have a die-cast toy F-19 sitting on top of my monitor. Kev's was made for Orbiter 2005, but I got it to work and I love that thing. It flies beautifully both in and out of the atmosphere and looks really cool. It's very simple and works great as a trainer. It lacks a docking port or robot arm, so I decided to try to rendezvous with Hubble to practice actually going somewhere. I thought I had the sync mfd figured out, but when I did the burn and got to where it said I should meet Hubble, it was on the other side of the planet! Figuring I did it wrong, I tried it a couple more times with the same result. I then happened to read on M6 that spacecraft2.dll vessels don't always work well with Orbiter 2006. So I'm up there with a defective instrument and plenty of fuel. I decided to try to sync manually. I set periapsis the same, inclination was at .01 and apoapsis was about 2 km higher. I was being gentle because this was my "first time". It took weeks, but Hubble slowly got closer. I could only use 10x time acceleration, so I spent my time running Orbiter while I was doing other things, glancing at the eye candy from time to time and listening to my mp3s. It was quite a thrill to actually get close enough to see it! When I did the sync burn it was on the night side and getting late for me as well, so I put things away for the next day. As it happened, that was the day that Arthur C. Clarke died. As I got to the daylight side and went for my approach, the random mp3 that started playing was the Blue Danube Waltz! I still get chills just thinking about it! It was awesome! Believe me, Dr. Clarke was in my thoughts the whole time. That entire mission took about three months of game time. When I landed, my avatar really needed a shower! I've also been working on enhancing the environment of Orbiter with the wonderful add-ons you folks produce, and am working on a modest add-on of my own for KSC that I hope to finish and post soon.

 

[Ghostrider]

I was being gentle because this was my "first time". It took weeks

Man, oh man. I could have a field day with this kind of sentence! :rofl:

 

[Kunsa]

Mostly I do LEO launches. Just trying to get a perfect launch.
I have been using the flight data module recently as I like to look at my ascent after Ive done it.

That and earth/moon transfers are my 2 favourite.

 

[Marcel]

Man, oh man. I could have a field day with this kind of sentence!

Well, I was going slowly because I didn't want to overshoot my target.

 

[Piper]

I like planning and designing realistic space missions like my Chapman probe, or the Eris Explorer which I'm currently working on (I'm nearly done, it should be released within the next week).

 

[Agent0ne]

Hi;

At first, because of the way I am
(used to military operations, to civil flights and as ATP),
I had to implement an organized virtual logic for realism accuracy.

The Earth Star Flight Academy (ESFA) is providing
the overall infrastructure that brings space travel
and exploration logically and realistically available to this day and age,
well, to me, at least !

http://esfanetwork.blogspot.com/

In this realistic Virtual Universe i've put in place,
there is so much to do I gotta stick to some sequenced missions for periods of time,

My main mission is to transport cargo (skids) from the Earth to the stations,
back and forth, with the FireFly vessel (Serenity):

- Large-scale re-fuelling and fuel transport to deep-space freighters
(NCC, Sankukai, Falcon, E.C.S.), to stations and major bases scatered in different sectors and quadrons [Not "quadran", Quadron: a particular sector inside a galaxy],

- Oxygen, Hydrogen, Acetylene, other compressed liquids and engines stuff,
- Life support and other refrigerated goods,
- Light re-supply to smaller bases and outposts,
- Standard shipping and large-scale re-supply to large bases and stations,
- Bulk dry goods, machinery, equipment etc.
- Also exploration and colonisation packages,


In between those re-supplying missions,
the regular sequenced mission I am assigned to is
remote station settlements and colonies transfer voyages:

- Take the Delta Glider (crews) to the ISS or MIR,
- Transport SHUTTLE-A (crews) from the ISS/MIR
to the particular Interstar Class vessel (NCC, Sankukai or Falcon),

- Travel that Interstar Class vessel to the Worm-Hole station
(orbiting Titon, Neptune),

- Then, get to one of the 7 quadrons related to the expeditions inside the galaxy,
including the Alpha and the Chara star systems...

Once in a quadron
(for example: Zigma quadron, Zlakus star system),
Performing flights related to exploration and colony activities...
(NCC, Faclon, SKK's shuttles, TiE-Interceptor/Fighter),


- Then come back from there to the Earth central station (San Marco, Kenya),
close the PIREP, end the flight log, drop some lines here, take some rest...

...and settle back for another mission !

Thats what I do.
Ag1.

 

[Agent0ne]

What happens when you want to go to Mars? Are you gonna leave the 'puter running for 7 months?

Well !!?!!

The Interstar Class vessels
(NCC, Sankukai, Falcon, Tie-Interceptor/Fighter and Firefly-Serenity),
are able to reach AU speeds !!

Proximity speeds:
From 4 500m/s to 1 000 000m/s (V1,000M on the flight display),

Astro travel speeds:
From Low Cruise 5 000km/s (V5.000M)
to High Cruise 50 000km/s (V50.000M)

and even faster....

* LS, or light speed (the speed of light) is 300 000 Km/sec (V300.000M, on the display) [300 000 000m/s],
be carefull about the reading:
m/s (meter per second), Km/s (kilo meter per sec.), and M/s (mega meter per sec.) !!

For logic and realism accuracy purposes, I never get even close to that speed.


so, I get from earth to titon, Neptune in 3 days...



Take note of this:

- The Orbiter Class vessels, like the Delta Glider, are only for getting in and out the planet's orbit,

- The Shuttle Class vessels, like the Shuttle-A and PB-1, are only for orbital transports, and Lg/Na Flights (Low gravity/No atmosphere), to get from a space station (ISS) to ships (interstar class vessels) already orbitting the planet (500km to 700km),

- The Interstar Class vessels, like the NCC (Enterprise) and Sankukai, are for space travel, either inside a solar system (planet, moons and space stations) or between solar systems...



Personaly,
I do like it this way,
because its logically and realistically accurate !

But this is MY way...

Ag1.