- Joined
- Feb 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,078
- Reaction score
- 17
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Montesano
- Website
- soundcloud.com
In an attempt to push past a bad case of writers' block and finally finish up my "prequel" to the sci-fi series I've been writing, I've been inspired to do a little modeling and spacecraft3 work again.
I really needed a little "space taxi" to play with and see if my ideas on a fictional Joint-Venture project was feasible, and to my delight found the X37C model Liber sent me a few years back sitting in my external HD archives! I've rescaled his original model, and then hacked it apart and redesigned things as per the descriptions I've written in my current draft.
The model is still pretty rough, but I've managed to get it imported into Orbiter for some testing and thought I'd share some info and some screen shots here. So far all tests have been done with my Daedalus B-52 catamaran aerial launch platform (the additional load requires a total of 6 velcro Jatos to get it up to speed from the Cayenne airport).
ZTC-X37MB (Microbus) holds 7 passengers and 2 crew members. A recycled/reused docking port has been taken from a Space Shuttle, converted and added to the rear of the X-37C's converted cargo bay, and is accessible via a cubicle mounted at the rear of the cabin. As the docking activity will be extremely challenging, I'm planning on using SC3's VC feature to use the docking port camera to assist.
The first stage currently uses a converted Ariane 5 EAP booster (P241) solid stage with a max g force of about 8.3 for the occupants of the Microbus for the last few seconds of the burn. I need to double check my calculations on ISPs and masses again, but initial tests have this 3 stage aerial launch achieving LEO of about 500 km with about 1/2 of the fuel left on the Microbus for deorbit.
I really needed a little "space taxi" to play with and see if my ideas on a fictional Joint-Venture project was feasible, and to my delight found the X37C model Liber sent me a few years back sitting in my external HD archives! I've rescaled his original model, and then hacked it apart and redesigned things as per the descriptions I've written in my current draft.
The model is still pretty rough, but I've managed to get it imported into Orbiter for some testing and thought I'd share some info and some screen shots here. So far all tests have been done with my Daedalus B-52 catamaran aerial launch platform (the additional load requires a total of 6 velcro Jatos to get it up to speed from the Cayenne airport).
ZTC-X37MB (Microbus) holds 7 passengers and 2 crew members. A recycled/reused docking port has been taken from a Space Shuttle, converted and added to the rear of the X-37C's converted cargo bay, and is accessible via a cubicle mounted at the rear of the cabin. As the docking activity will be extremely challenging, I'm planning on using SC3's VC feature to use the docking port camera to assist.
The first stage currently uses a converted Ariane 5 EAP booster (P241) solid stage with a max g force of about 8.3 for the occupants of the Microbus for the last few seconds of the burn. I need to double check my calculations on ISPs and masses again, but initial tests have this 3 stage aerial launch achieving LEO of about 500 km with about 1/2 of the fuel left on the Microbus for deorbit.