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ORBITER User Manual

1. e current mass i Size e Size SR PMI 16 22 8 e mass normalised principal moments of XPDR 108 00 kHz inertia PMI EE 28 591N e transponder frequency Aude 257m i equatorial position longitude and latitude Gesi Sie above currently orbited planet altitude airspeed horizon relative attitude yaw pitch roll orbital elements in the ecliptic frame of reference relative to currently orbited planet semi major axis eccentricity inclination longitude of ascending node longitude of periapsis mean longitude e docking port status if applicable free docked vessel instrument docking system IDS transmitter frequency e update mode free flight landed dynamic or stabilised time step updates 10 2 Spaceports Spaceport information sheets contain Orbiter Object info Pitch 0 Roll O left Orbital parameters ecliptic frame Ref Earth e planet moon and equatorial position e landing pad status free landed vessel and DZ eat 92 ang 23 000 N instrument landing system ILS transmitter frequency e Runway information runway alignment di rection length and ILS transmitter fre quency e Frequencies for any VOR very high fre quency omnidirectional radio transmitters associated with the spaceport UHA 11610 10 3 Celestial bodies Information sheets for celestial bodies such as sun planets and moons contain e physical parameters e mass M e mean radius R e length
2. Open a menu for left right MFD mode selection n gt E AE E Open page close the MFD specific parameter selection menu n z Display Align orbital plane mode MFD n gt Display Docking mode MFD n gt Display Launch landing mode MFD n Display Map mode MFD n gt Display Orbit mode MFD n z Display Surface mode MFD n z Display Transfer mode MFD Display Synchronise orbit mode MFD PIE eee ELE Shift Si Turn off MFD EI o O 5 Shift E E ing Mode MFD Input new docking target gt E 3 orbital plane Mode MFD B sl T Input new target object Orbit Mode MFD Auto select reference object Toggle frame reference ecliptic or equator of reference object ERIAN KRAN K 2 Toggle display mode list only graphics only and both No target orbit n Toggle orbit projection mode ecliptic ship s and target s orbital plane Select new reference object planet or moon for orbit calculation Shift 3 FEI EEEE Si Open menu for target selection D el 2 e MFD JE Open input box for reference planet moon selection n gt Open a menu for target selection Switch automatic vessel track mode on or off Toggle between global map view and 2x zo
3. SEL MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 48 MFD display components The display is divided into two sections The NAV receiver stack listing the frequency and signal status of the ship s navigation radio receivers and the Transponder status showing the frequency of the ship s transponder Nav Receiver frequency NAV receiver signal status source type and ID Transponder t Transmitter status The frequency of the selected receiver transmitter can be tuned in steps of 1kHz with shj and sht and in steps of 0 05kHz with sl U and aal Il in the range from 85 00kHz to 140 00kHz If a compatible NAV transmitter is within range the instrument displays information about the signal source Notes e Certain instruments such as the Launch Land MED mode are slaved to a NAV receiver and will only work if a suitable signal is available This behaviour differs from earlier Or biter versions where the data reference was obtained automatically e The Object Info Le JL f and Navaid Info dialogs Ler J NJ are a useful tools to obtain fre quencies for navaid transmitters such as VOR and ILS beacons or vessel transponders J Orbiter Object info E E x Object Type Location Spaceport x I Cape Canaveral DI z I Earth D Cape Canaveral Freq Lat Lng R Location Earth 080 507 W 28 345 N S er ep 42 111 N 092 909 W 130km 45 820 N 09
4. Longitude of the periapsis O Q a Eccentric anomaly 1 Irl E areeee Mean anomaly M E esinE Mean longitude L M 0 True longitude l 0 v Orbit period T 27 afu ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 110
5. Select current item and close list Cancel list ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 24 7 Joystick interface A joystick can be used to operate the attitude and main thrusters of the user controlled spacecraft manually Action Effect Push stick left or right Rotate around vessel s longitudinal axis bank Push stick forward or Rotate around vessel s transversal axis pitch backward Operate rudder control Rotate around vessel s vertical axis yaw or Push stick left or right while holding joystick button 2 Operate throttle control Controls main thruster settings This is similar to the ct leen and GL Jwumpaa keyboard controls but it affects only the main thrusters not the retro thrusters Direction controller coolie Cockpit view rotate view direction hat External view rotate camera around the observed object Direction contoller joystick Cockpit view scroll instrument panel if applicable button 2 External view rotate view direction ground observer mode only ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 25 8 Mouse interface Spacecraft instrument panels can be operated by the mouse Most buttons switches and di als are activated by pressing the left mouse button Some elements like multi way dials may respond to both left and right mouse buttons In external camera modes the mouse wheel control if available can
6. lt Vessel name gt lt Class name gt lt Vessel parameters gt END lt Vessel name gt ship identifier string lt Class name gt vessel class if applicable If no class is specified a cfg file for the vessel lt vessel name gt cfg is required lt Vessel parameters gt Parameter Type Description STATUS Flag Landed lt planet gt Orbiting lt planet gt BASE lt base gt lt lpad gt only for STATUS Landed HEADING F Orientation only for STATUS Landed RPOS V Position rel to reference only for STATUS Orbiting RVEL V Velocity rel to reference only for STATUS Orbiting ELEMENTS List Orbital elements This is an alternative to RPOS and RVEL for vessels with STATUS Orbiting The list contains 7 entries semi major axis a m eccentricity e inclination 4 longitude of ascending node Q longitude of periapsis mean longitude at reference date and reference date in MJD format AROT V Orientation rotation angles of object frame only for STATUS Orbiting VROT V angular velocity 7s only for STATUS Orbiting FUEL F Fuel level 0 to 1 This entry sets the level of all propellant resources to the same level For individual settings use PRPLEVEL option instead PRPLEVEL List List of propellant resource levels Each entry is of the form lt id gt lt level gt where lt id gt is the resource identifier and lt level gt is the propellant resource level 0 1 THLEVEL List List of thr
7. In if n lt Othen Q 27 Q Q is the angle between reference direction 1 0 0 e g vernal equinox and the ascending node Q is undefined for equatorial orbits i 0 in which case ORBITER by convention sets Q 0 i e it places the ascending node in the reference direction which is equivalent to setting n n l 1 0 0 Argument of periapsis n e arccos Inlle if e lt 0then w 27 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 109 ais the angle between the ascending node and the periapsis wis undefined for equatorial orbits in which case according to above convention we get e GE if e lt Othen w 27 e ais also undefined for circular orbits in which case ORBITER by convention places the peri apsis at the ascending node i e a 0 True anomaly er V arccos if r v lt 0 then v 2z v lellr v is the angle between the periapsis and object position Note that this expression is unde fined for circular orbits in which case the periapsis coincides with the ascending node ac cording to the convention above i e nr V arccos l if n v gt Othen v 27 v r In If in addition the inclination is zero then the true anomaly further simplifies to r EE if v gt 0 then v 27 v r Some dependent parameters can be derived from the above elements Linear eccentricity EE Semi minor axis b a l e Periapsis and apoapsis distances d a l e d a l e
8. Rotate inter section point Shift L Rotate inter section point sj Map shit ul Scroll up zl Scroll down zl Align orbital planes engl al ign orbital plane SEL MNU Synchronise orbits Shit Y Syne Orit 133 11 08k tee SEL MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 104 Select refer ence object Shift R Select source Se D Q g cb D Q D T Unselect target Toggle hypo thetical orbit ene Numerical trajectory Select display ___ Page Altitude range sot Al nge ra Context help sonJ Switch to next stage Be Switch to previous stage Shift R E Select vie Shift wl E Next variable Shift L B Previous variable Shift f D ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger NUM Asc i Transfer Shift X nt profile SEL MNU SEL MNU SEL MNU Update trajector Shift uf Time steps Rotate ejection point Rotate ejection point Decrease AV Increase AV Increase sensitivity Shift a Decrease sensitivity Shift a 105 Appendix B Solar System Constants and parameters
9. This section contains a list of physical and orbital planetary parameters used by Orbiter to build its solar system BI Astrodynamic constants and parameters Constant Symbol Value i C Cc Julian century 36525 Gl Speed of light 299792458 m s Gaussian gravitational k 0 01720209895 AU d constant Table 1 Defining constants Constant Symbol Value Mean siderial day 86164 09054 s 23 56 04 09054 Gravitational constant G GRor 2590 AMOROO0S Ox MO karim esr General precession in longitude 5028 83 0204 arcsec Cy Obliquity of ecliptic J2000 E 84381 412 0 005 arcsec Mass Sun Earth Moon EIERE 0 02 Mass Sun Uranus system 22902 FIS 2 0003 Mass Moon Earth 0 012300034 eh Table 2 Primary constants Constant Symbol Value Astronomical unit distance cx ps AU 1 49597870691 x 10 3 m Heliocentric gravitational k AUP da Dan 1 32712440018 x 10 8 x 10 m s constant Mass Earth Moon 81 30059 0 00001 Table 3 Derived constants Notes Data are from the 1994 IAU file of current best estimates Planetary ranging determines the Earth Moon mass ratio The value for 1 AU is taken from JPL s current planetary ephemeris DE 405 Reference Standish E M 1995 Report of the IAU WGAS Sub Group on Numerical Standards in Highlights of Astronomy I Appenzeller ed Table 1 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dor drecht B 2 Planetary mean orbits J2000 Epoch J2
10. gt v RCS Level lt ME gt Navmode Killrat Prograde Normal HLevel Retrograde Normal Figure 32 Remote vessel control dialog 17 3 Flight data monitor The flight data monitor graphically displays a number of flight parameters as a function of time This tool is available only if the FlightData module is active The dialog box is accessible via the Custom functions panel Le J F4J The control area of the dialog box allows to select the vessel for which the flight data are displayed the sampling rate and the flight parameters to show The following parameter displays are currently supported Altitude Airspeed Mach number Free stream temperature Static and dynamic pressure Angle of attack Lift and drag force Lift over drag ratio L D Vessel mass For each parameter category selected in the list a graph display is opened below the control area to track that parameter as a function of time e The Start Stop button starts or stops the update of the data graphs ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 78 wel The Reset button clears the data graphs The Log button starts or stops the output of flight data to a log file When the Log button is ticked Or biter will write out data into text file FlightData log in the main Orbiter di rectory This file can later be used to analyse or visualise the data with external tools FlightData log is overwritt
11. normal of the current plane n normal of the target plane The direction of the normal vector n is defined by the direction of the cross product r X Vs Acceleration should be applied in direction n in the ascending node AN and in di rection n in the descending node DN see Figure 24 In Practice e The Align orbital plane MED mode Shift A see Section 13 8 is designed to aid in plane alignment Select the target object Shift T e The HUD should be in Orbit mode As your ship approaches the intersection with the tar get plane rotate it normal if at DN or anti normal if at AN to the current orbital plane Use the HUD Orbit inclination ladder for this e As soon as the time to node Tn reaches half the estimated burn time Tth the Engage thruster indicator will start flashing Engage full main thrusters Make sure the relative in clination RInc decreases i e the rate of change Rate is negative otherwise you may be pointing in the wrong direction e Adjust the ship s orientation as required to keep normal to orbital plane e Disengage thrusters as soon as the action indicator turns back to Kill thruster e Ifthe relative inclination was not sufficiently reduced repeat the procedure at the next node passage ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 72 e During the manoeuvre make sure your orbit does not become unstable Watch in par ticular for the eccentricity use the Orbit MFD to m
12. surfaces disconnected ON control surfaces enabled and PITCH only pitch control enabled The RCS MODE selector sets the Reaction Control System mode which is used to control at titude in free space During atmospheric flight when aerodynamic control surfaces are active the RCS is usually disabled The selector can be set to OFF RCS disabled ROT RCS in rotational mode and LIN RCS in linear mode Both selectors can be set with the left and right mouse buttons Shortcuts for RCS are luese ROT LIN and c J Jyumpad ON OFF Shortcut for AF control is At JU f numpaa ON OFF Main engine gimbal control Both main engines can be gimballed independently in pitch and yaw Gimbal range is 1 0 in pitch and 7 7 in yaw The yaw range allows to compensate for torque generated by a single engine at main thrust The main engine pitch and yaw gimbal controls are arranged left of the main throttle The gimbal setting is controlled by flip switches for the left and right engine The gimbals can be operated for both engines individu ally or simultaneously by clicking between the switches Both the pitch and jaw gimbals can be returned to neutral position by pressing the appropriate CENTER button In addition the yaw gimbal control supports divergent DIV and automatic AUTO settings With DIV both engines are set to divergent thrust at their extreme limit so that both thrust vectors are aligned with th
13. EnableNightlights Bool Enable rendering of night lighting effects of planetary surfaces NightlightBrightness Int Brightness level of night lighting effects 0 255 EnableW ater Bool Enable rendering of specular reflections from oceanic Reflection surfaces EnableHorizonHaze Bool Enable rendering of atmospheric effects at the horizon EnableSpecular Bool Enable specular reflection effects from polished surfaces Reflection InstrumentUpdate Float Interval between MFD display updates seconds Interval PanelScale Float Scaling factor for instrument panel display PanelScrollSpeed Float Speed factor for panel scrolling pixels per second PlanetPatchRes Float Resolution factor for planet surfaces Valid range is 0 1 to 10 Higher values produce higher resolution planetary surfaces at a given apparent radius but reduce erformance DialogFont_Scale Float Scaling factor for dialog font size Default 1 0 DialogFont1_Face String _ Standard dialog font face Default Arial ActiveModules List List of active plugin modules 21 2 Planetary systems Planetary systems contain stars planets and moons Each planetary system requires at least one star Stars planets and moons are defined in the planetary system s configuration file General parameters Item Type Description Name String A name for the planetary system MarkerPath String Directory path containing surface marker lists for the planet Default Config lt name gt Marker See al
14. ToR 0 At Tg ToR 1 T At j Synchronisation T T At target orbit AL target ship Figure 25 A transition orbit to intercept the target at the next periapsis passage Notes e Instead of increasing the apoapsis distance one could fire retrograde and reduce the periapsis distance in this manoeuvre This may be more efficient if the target is ahead of the ship But make sure that periapsis does not become dangerously low e t should always be possible to match your next ToR orbit 0 with the target s ToR at orbit 1 If you are low on fuel it may however be better to match later orbits if this can be achieved with less distortion to the original orbit For example if the target is marginally ahead then to intercept it in the next orbit you need to nearly double your orbital period e It is not essential that the orbits are identical or circular at the start of the manoeuvre It is sufficient for them to intersect In that case it is best to use Intersection 1 or 2 reference mode in the Synchronise MFD e You don t necessarily need to wait until you reach the reference point before firing thrust ers but it simplifies matters because otherwise the intersection point itself will move making the alignment of orbit timings more difficult 16 6 Landing runway approach Some of Orbiter s spacecraft support powered or unpowered runway approaches similar to normal aircraft Examples are the delta glider and the S
15. a configuration file for the corresponding surface base BEGIN_SURFBASE lt base list gt END_SURFBASE ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 90 Base list entries have the following format lt name gt lt Ing gt lt lat gt where lt name gt Name which identifies the base config file lt name gt cfg The actual name of the base as it appears in Orbiter is given by the NAME tag in the base config file lt Ing gt lt lat gt Base position equatorial coordinates deg Note that there is an alternative format for this list using a NumBases entry and BaseXX tags This format is obsolete and should no longer be used Ground based observer sites optional This list contains the pre defined locations for ground based observers launch cameras spectators etc which can be selected in the Camera dialog The format of the list is BEGIN_OBSERVER lt observer list gt END_OBSERVER List entries have the following format lt site gt lt spot gt lt Ing gt lt lat gt lt alt gt where lt site gt a name which identifies the site e g KSC lt spot gt the particular location at the site e g Launch pad 39 lt lng gt lt lat gt observer position equatorial coordinates deg lt alt gt observer altitude m gt 0 The easiest way to find the coordinates for a new observer spot is to open the Camera dialog Lot J Ff and select a nearby location under the Grou
16. ac cessible from the ORBITER home page ORBITER the thinking being s simulator Enjoy the ride Martin Schweiger ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 4 2 Installation This section lists the computer hardware requirements for running Orbiter and contains download and installation instructions 2 1 Hardware requirements The standard ORBITER distribution requires the following minimum hardware features 300MHz PC or better Pentium Athlon etc 128MB RAM or more Windows 95 98 Me 2000 XP DirectX 7 0 or higher DirectX compatible 3D graphics accelerator card with at least 16MB of video RAM 32MB or more recommended and DXT texture compression support e Approximately 60MB of free disk space for the minimum installation additional high resolution textures and addons will require more space e DirectX compatible joystick optional Installing high resolution texture packs or addons may have an impact on performance and could require significantly higher computing specs Since ORBITER keeps evolving these specs tend to become obsolete over time If you don t get a reasonable frame rate Say gt 20fps using the default Orbiter cfg on a machine which meets the specs then please drop me a note and will correct the requirement list upward 2 2 Download The ORBITER distribution can be obtained from one of several Orbiter mirror sites on the internet You can find links to these mirrors at
17. aircraft You have probably ended up a long way from your launch point at the KSC Re entering towards a specified landing point requires some practice in timing the deorbit burn and the reentry flight path We ll leave this for a later mission For now simply look for a dry patch to land your glider This completes your first orbital excursion You are now ready to try more advanced missions Try the Launch to docking with the ISS flight described in section 18 First you might want to learn a bit more about orbital manoeu vres and docking procedures in section 16 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 18 5 Getting help NAWE From the Orbiter launchpad you can get a description of the different dialog box options by pressing the Help button in the bottom right corner During the simulation you can open the Orbiter help window by pressing alc or by se lecting Help from the main menu EJ The help system provides information about MFD modes and optionally a description of the current scenario or the currently active spacecraft Orbiter Help G Hide back Dez e D Leben SE Orbit MED displa Introduction 2 How to use Help The Orbiter Launchpad LO Multifunctional display mode Move the mouse over the images to see a description of the different elernents 2 COM NAY MFD Orbit Earth QU stam Descending z node This is A a the p
18. an orbital plane the inclination and longitude of ascending node with respect to the ecliptic frame of reference Key options al Input a new target object or target orbital parameters snitt EJ Input target plane as ecliptic inclination and longitude of ascending node MFD control layout Select target Align orbital plane object Shift it Select custom elements SEL MNU MFD display components Align orbital plane target object target inclination current inclination target longitude of asc node current longitu de of asc node schematic orbit rel inclination radius vector descending node intersection with target plane rate of change angles to asc desc node time to node predicted thrust time asscending node ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 60 13 9 Synchronise orbit The Synchronise Orbit MFD assists in catching up with an orbiting body once the orbital planes have been aligned see previous section The instrument displays the ship s and target body s orbits together with a reference axis and lists the times it will take both objects to reach this axis for a series of orbits For this instrument to work properly the orbital planes of both objects must coincide The relative inclination of the orbital planes is shown in the lower left corner Rinc If this be comes greater than 1 realign the planes
19. and VASI landing aids in front of and be side the runway see section 16 6 The PAPI is of limited use here because it is adjusted for the Space Shuttle s steep descent slope of 20 ai back and engage airbrakes Len JB to reduce speed Lower the landing gear J ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 16 After touchdown engage left and right wheel brakes _ and Dh until you come to a full stop Space flight So far we have treated the glider much like a conventional aircraft Now it is time to aim a bit higher Take off as before Turn east use the compass ribbon at the top edge of the HUD or the one in the Surface MFD display and pitch up to 50 As you gain altitude you will notice that your craft starts to behave differently due to the reduction in atmospheric pressure One of the effects is a loss of lift which causes the flight path indicator the HUD marker slowly to drift down Another effect is the loss of response from your aerodynamic control surfaces At about 30km altitude your glider will start to drop its nose even while you are pulling back on the stick Now activate the RCS Reaction Control System by right clicking the RCS Mode selector on the right side of the instrument panel or by pressing Len JU luese You are now controlling your craft with attitude thrusters Pitch down to about 20 After leaving the dense part of the atmosphere you need to gain tangential velo
20. from the numerical keypad or the cursor keypad will be denoted by subscript e g E Numpad or Cursorpad Note that certain spacecraft may define additional keyboard functions Check individual manuals for a detailed description of spacecraft controls and functionality Jolelelel via otet yi GSlsleloieieiolilelc Urs ef lzixlelvieln ple aal Jet Figure 7 Keyboard layout reference 6 General mmh Toggle frame rate info on off Toggle display of information about current object and camera mode Time warp shortcut Slow down simulation by factor 10 down to real time See also Time acceleration dialog oI Time warp shortcut Speed up simulation by factor 10 up to a maximum warp factor of 10000 See also Time acceleration dialog Lo lech Zoom out increase field of view See also Camera dialog Low lech 3 Be NIL Zoom in decrease field of view See also Camera dialog Le lech Undock from a vessel B Pause resume simulation B Exit to Launchpad dialog lg walale Quicksave scenario ER Toggle internal external view of the user controlled spacecraft Open the Camera dialog to select camera target view mode and field of view Toggle tracking mode for external camera views target relative absolute direction global frame E El ou le Open the Time acceleration dialog This allows to speed
21. gt lt Object 1 gt lt Object n 1 gt END_OBJECTLIST Each object entry in the list defines a particular object and its properties type position size textures etc An object can either be a pre defined type or a generic mesh Each object en try has the following format lt Type gt lt Parameters gt END Note that textures used by base objects must be listed in the texture list of the Base cfg configuration file The following pre defined object types are currently supported BLOCK A 5 sided brick without a floor which can be used as a simple generic building or as part of a more complex structure The following parameters are supported Parameter Type Description POS V Centre of the block s base rectangle in local coordinates of the surface base Note that the y coordinate is the elevation above ground Default 0 0 0 SCALE V Object size in the three coordinate axes Default 1 1 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX1 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for walls along the x axis Default none TEX2 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for walls along the z axis Default none TEX3 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for roof Default none V Vector F Float S String HANGAR A hangar type building with a barrel shaped roof The following parameters are supported Parameter Type Description POS V Centre of the object s base re
22. in a column on the left of the MFD display green If a target is selected its elements are listed in a column on the right of the MFD yellow The elements refer to the selected frame of reference so they will change when switching between ecliptic ECL and equatorial EQU frame Orbit reference Frame of reference 1 af a ee Semi major axis Semi minor axis Periapsis distance Apoapsis distance Radial distance Eccentricity Orbit period Time to periapsis passage Time to apoapsis passage Velocity Inclination Longitude of ascending node Longitude of periapsis Argument of periapsis True anomaly True longitude Mean anomaly Mean longitude Ship elements Target elements G field contribution ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 51 Notation e Semi major axis the longest semi diameter of the orbit ellipse e Semi minor axis the shortest semi diameter of the orbit ellipse e Periapsis The lowest point of the orbit For Earth orbits this is also called perigee For solar orbits it is also called perihelion e Apoapsis The highest point of the orbit for Earth orbits this is also called apogee For solar orbits it is also called aphelion e Ascending node The point at which the orbit passes through the reference plane plane of the ecliptic or equator plane from below e Descending node The point at which the orbit passes t
23. is the intellectual property of Martin Schweiger The ORBITER software is provided as is without any warranty of any kind To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law Martin Schweiger further disclaims all warranties includ ing without limitation any implied or stated warranties of merchantability fitness for a particu lar purpose and noninfringement The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of this product and documentation remains with recipient To the maximum extent permitted by ap plicable law in no event shall program ORBITER or its suppliers be liable for any consequen tial incidental direct indirect special punitive recursive or other damages whatsoever in cluding without limitation damages for loss of business profits business interruption loss of business information personal injury disruption of family life or other pecuniary loss arising out of this agreement or the use of or inability to use the product even if program ORBITER has been advised of the possibility of such damages Because some states jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability of consequential or incidental damages the above limitation may not apply to the recipient ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 1 12 5 12 6 INTRODUCTION vec nceceicetcsee cen scevccseeeceseststev cece lectus iaaeaie aeaaeae aa etdan aaiae 4 INST ALE ATION Soci eege ege 5 Hardware requirements 0 ececeeeeeee
24. it an ideal platform to launch lunar and interplanetary missions ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 35 MIR model and textures by Jason Benson MIR sends a transponder XPDR signal at default frequency 132 10 which can be used for tracking the station during a rendezvous manoeuvre MIR supports 3 docking ports with the following IDS transmitter frequencies Port 1 135 00 Port 2 135 10 Port 3 135 20 9 8 Lunar Wheel Station This is a large fictional space station in orbit around the Moon It consists of a wheel attached to a central hub with two spokes The wheel has a diameter of 500 metres and is spinning at a frequency of one cycle per 36 seconds providing its occupants with a centrifugal accelera tion of 7 6 mie or about 0 8g to mimic Earth s surface gravitational force The main problem the station poses to the spacecraft pilot is in performing a docking ma noeuvre Docking to a rotating object is only possible along the rotation axis The wheel has two docking ports in the central hub The docking approach is performed along the axis of rotation Before docking the approching vessel must synchronise its own longitudinal rotation with that of the station For docking procedures see Section 16 7 Currently Orbiter s docking instrumentation works on rotating docking targets only if the vessel s docking port is aligned with its longitudinal axis of rotation This is the case for Shuttle A and Dra
25. operated if the cargo bay doors a fully open en Space Open RMS control dialog Unlike the futuristic spacecraft designs Atlantis provides only a small margin of error for achieving orbit Try some of the other ships before attempting to launch the Shuttle Limited fuel must be selected otherwise Atlantis is too heavy to reach orbit 9 6 International Space Station ISS The International Space Station is a multinational scientific orbital platform currently under construction although its fate is now somewhat in doubt after the Columbia disaster ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 34 Orbiter contains the ISS in its completed state The ISS is a good docking target for Shuttle and other spacecraft missions 3D model and textures Project Alpha by Andrew Farnaby In Orbiter the ISS can be tracked with its transponder XPDR signal which by default is set to frequency 131 30 The ISS contains 5 docking ports In Orbiter each is equipped with an IDS Instrument Docking System transmitter The default IDS frequencies are Port 1 137 40 Port 2 137 30 Port 3 137 20 Port 4 137 10 Port 5 137 00 For docking procedures see Section 16 7 9 7 Space Station MIR In Orbiter the Russian MIR station is still in orbit around Earth and can be used for docking approaches Furthermore unlike its real life counterpart Orbiter s MIR is orbiting in the plane of the ecliptic which makes
26. other satellite components A second servicing mission scheduled for March 1997 installed two new instruments in the observatory Orbiter provides several Space Shuttle HST missions for both deployment and recapture op erations For Shuttle payload manipulation see Section 9 5 above HST specific key controls Com Deploy retract high gain antennae cn J 2 Open close telescope tube hatch cn J 3 Deploy fold solar arrays ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 37 HST model and textures by David Sundstrom 9 10 LDEF Satellite Long Duration Exposure Facility LDEF Deployed in orbit on April 7 1984 by Shuttle Challenger and intended for retrieval after one year the LDEF satellite was stranded in orbit for six years after the Challenger accident The crew of STS 32 recovered the LDEF from its decaying orbit on January 11 1990 two months before it would have re entered the Earth s atmosphere and would have been destroyed The LDEF makes a good object for deployment and retrieval missions in Orbiter LDEF mesh by Don Gallagher ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 38 10 Object information Use the object information dialog Col Oh to retrieve data and current parameters about the current camera target spacecraft spaceports celestial objects sun planets moons 10 1 Vessels The information sheet for spacecraft and orbital EMEA E x stations contains
27. preset list is a good way to prepare a set of camera angles beforehand for example to follow a launch and then activate them quickly without having to adjust the positions manually The preset list is stored together with the simulation state so it can be shared via a scenario file ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 44 12 Head up display The Head up display HUD provides information about the current status of your spacecraft when internal cockpit view mode is selected The HUD is switched on off with lol HUD modes can be selected with Hl The following modes are available e Surface Displays horizon pitch ladder compass ribbon altitude and airspeed e Orbit Displays orbital plane pitch ladder prograde and retrograde velocity markers e Docking Displays target distance and relative velocity markers All HUD modes show engine and fuel status in the top left corner and general information time and camera aperture in the top right corner Two multifunctional displays MFDs can be displayed independent of the HUD mode see Section 13 S Compass ribbon Iwj Airspeed General information Velocity veetor information display Pitch ladder E Navcomp Direction iadi ator modes Left MFD tn Right MFD Surface Earth Rot lim 38 Figure 12 HUD in surface mode including generic docking and surface MFDs 12 1 General information display A block of data with information about simulatio
28. s base circle in local coordinates of the surface base Note that the y coordinate is the elevation above ground Default 0 0 0 SCALE V Cylinder radii in x and z and height in y Default 1 1 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 NSTEP Number of segments to approximate circle Default 12 TEST SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for mantle Default none TEX2 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for top V Vector F Float l Integer S String RUNWAY Texturing for a runway The texture mapping can be split into segments to allow inclusion of markings overruns etc This does not include any lighting See RUNWAYLIGHTS Parameter Type Description END1 V First end point of runway center line including any overruns to be textured END2 V Second end point of runway center line WIDTH F Runway width m ILS1 F Localiser frequency for approach towards END1 108 00 to 139 95 Default No ILS support ILS2 F Localiser frequency for approach towards END2 108 00 to 139 95 This can be the same frequency as ILS1 Default No ILS support NRWSEG Number of texture segments RWSEGx IF FF Definition of segment x x 1 NRWSEG FF Parameters 1 Number of mesh sub segments 21 2 Fractional length of segment sum of all segments must be 1 3 texture coordinate uo of segment 4 texture coordinate u4 5 texture coordinate vo 6 texture coordinate v RWTEX S Texture name for all segme
29. the Download page of the ORBITER site http www medphys ucl ac uk martins orbit orbit html Orbiter is distributed in several pack ages zip files The Base package contains the basic Orbiter system and is the only required package All other packages are optional extensions to the basic system All package names contain a 6 digit time stamp YYMMDD which allows to identify the modi fication date of the package For example orbiterO50114_base zip contains the base package built on January 14 2005 Note that not all current packages may have the same time stamp In particular high resolution planetary texture packages are rarely updated and may have an older time stamp Check the download pages for the latest versions of all packages 2 3 Installation Create a new folder for the ORBITER installation e g Program Files Orbiter_050114 If a previous version of ORBITER is already installed on your computer you should not install the new version into the same folder because this could lead to file conflicts You may want to keep your old installation until you have made sure that the latest version works without problems Multiple ORBITER installations can exist on the same computer e Download the Base package from an ORBITER download site into your new ORBITER folder and unzip it with WinZip or an equivalent utility Important Take care to preserve the directory structure of the package for example in WinZip this requires to activate t
30. us it can be a handy tool and also helps in visualising the dynamics of planetary systems ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 84 Target equator Object Celestial markers equator Ecliptic Celestial markers Constellations Planetary surface markers Figure 34 Grid lines celestial vessel and surface markers ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 85 NEW 20 Demo mode Orbiter can be run in demo or kiosk mode to facilitate its use in public environments such as exhibitions and museums Demo mode can be configured by manually editing the Orbiter cfg configuration file in the main Orbiter directory The following options are available Item Type Description DemoMode Bool Set to TRUE to enable demo mode default FALSE Backgroundimage Bool Set to TRUE to cover the desktop with a static image default FALSE BlockExit Bool Set to TRUE to disable the Exit function in Orbiter s launchpad dialog If this option is enabled Orbiter can only be exited via the task manager default FALSE MaxDemoTime Float Defines the maximum runtime for a simulation seconds Orbiter automatically returns to the launchpad when the runtime has expired MaxLaunchpadidleTime Float Maximum time spent in the launchpad without user input before Orbiter auto launches a demo scenario seconds In demo mode only the Scenario tab is acce
31. using the Align Orbital Planes MFD Once the planes are aligned all subsequent manoeuvres should be performed in this plane Key options sel Select target object Only objects orbiting the same body as the ship will be accepted Shift m Select reference axis mode Intersection 1 and 2 are only available if the orbits intersect shit W L Rotate reference axis manual axis mode only shit N J Select number of orbit timings in the list MFD control layout Select target Syne EDIt Isp object af ter n DE Tog secti Ze 53 0 s 5 si 5 2 T n Ce E OD BE am section ia Shift J SEL MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 61 MFD display components Target object Syne Orbit I55 Orbit counter Reference axis Ship time on True anomaly of reference axis ref axis Target time on Longitude reference axis difference Ship orbit Distance m Target orbit Rel velocity m s Ship radius vector Time of arrival difference Target radius vec Rel orbit inclination Reference axis Figure 17 Synchronise Orbit MFD mode e Target object The synchronisation target is displayed in the title line It can be selected with axial e Reference axis A selectable axis for which timings are computed Can be selected with enn wl from o
32. 000 2000 January 1 5 Planet a AU e i deg Q deg deg L deg mean Mercury 0 38709893 0 20563069 7 00487 48 33167 77 45645 252 29084 Venus 072333199 0 00677323 3 39471 76 68069 131 53298 181 97973 Earth 1 00000011 0 01671022 0 00005 11 26064 TOZ SCAS 100 46435 Mars 152366231 0 09341233 1 85061 49 57854 336 04084 355 45332 Jupiter EEN 0 04839266 1 30530 LOO SI6iS 14 75385 34 40438 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 106 Saturn Ee 0 05415060 2 48446 Ee 92 43194 49 94432 Uranus ZE 0 04716771 0 76986 74 22988 170 96424 El Neptune 30 06896348 0 00858587 AOE Ee 44 97135 304 88003 Pluto 39 48168677 0 24880766 d MAYS 110 30347 224 06676 2339 92381 Table 4 Planetary mean orbits B 3 Planetary orbital element centennial rates for the mean elements given above Mercury 0 00000066 0 00002527 23 51 446 30 573 57 538101628 29 Venus 0 00000092 0 00004938 2 86 996 89 108 80 210664136 06 rs 0 00007221 0 00011902 25 47 1020 19 1560 78 68905103 78 Uranus 0 00152025 0 00019150 2 09 1681 40 1312 56 1542547 79 Neptune 0 00125196 0 0000251 3 64 151 25 844 43 786449 21 Pluto 0 00076912 0 00006465 O 37 33 132 25 522747 90 arcsecs Cy Julian century a Semi major axis e eccentricity i inclination Q longitude of the ascending node Q longitude of perihelion L mean longitude Notes This table contains mean orbit solutions from a 250 yr least squares fit of the DE 200
33. 0001 0 01 e Note Orbiter uses now an improved stabilisation algorithm Unlike previous versions this can now account for perturbations of the gravitational field aerodynamic and thruster forces Stars e Count Number of displayed background stars Orbiter uses the Hipparcos database of more than 100000 bright stars Specifying a large number will provide a more impressive night sky but may degrade performance Set to zero to suppress background stars e Brightness Brightness scaling factor for background stars Valid range is 4 to 4 default 1 Note that the dynamic range becomes less realistic for large values e Contrast Intensity contrast used for rendering stars Valid range is O to 5 default 1 If you use only a small part of the database you may want to increase the contrast e g to 1 5 and reduce the brightness e g to 0 8 If you use the full database values of brightness 1 5 and contrast 1 0 give good results Technical background The mapping between a stars apparent magnitude m and pixel render brightness c is calculated by the clamped linear relationship m m c min 1 max cy l area ey gy where m 2B 2 C 2 m 2B 2 C 3 Cy 0 3 with B and C the user supplied brightness and contrast values For default values B 1 C 1 the supported contrast range is thus m 2 to m 7 mo m Instruments e Transparent MFD Make the onscreen multifunctional displa
34. 00km planet radius e g 7370km for Earth Use Orbit MFD mode to monitor this e Wait until you reach apoapsis e Turn ship prograde and engage main thrusters e Kill thrusters as soon as periapsis equals apoapsis and eccentricity is back to 0 A a transfer orbits A Se SS ZS be S target SE target orbit initial orbit Figure 23 Moving into a higher orbit involves prograde acceleration at P and A periapsis and apoapsis of the transfer orbit Conversely moving from the higher to the lower orbit requires retrograde acceleration at A and P Case 2 Rotate the argument of periapsis of an elliptic orbit i e rotate the orbital ellipse in its Get Wait until you reach periapsis e Turn ship retrograde and engage main thrusters until orbit is circular eccentricity 0 e Wait until you reach the desired new periapsis position e Turn ship prograde and engage main thrusters until original eccentricity and apoapsis distances are re established 16 4 Rotating the orbital plane In order to rendezvous with another orbiting body e g a space station or to prepare for tran sit to a moon or planet the first step is to align the orbital plane OP of your ship with that of ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 71 the target Once you are in the same OP as your target most of the following navigational problems become essentially two dimensional which makes them more robust and a lot easier to compute In term
35. 2 13 11 Ascent profile custom MFD model 65 14 SPACECRAFT CONTROLS ri eege Ee ee Ee 67 14 1 Main retro and hover engines ssssssesenssesssssrnnnstesrtttnnnnstesttntnnnnsnnertnnnnnnnteennnnn nanne et 67 t42 Amde LISER iea E EA E E EAT ASRR E EE ASERRE AENEA 68 15 RADIO NAVIGATION AIDS 0 ccccetcesteeeeeeeeeeneeesneeeesneeeneeeesaeseseeeenseeeseeeseseaesnseeeeseaeas 69 16 BASIC FLIGHT MANOEUVRES c ecccsseeseseeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseeeseseeeeseeeseeeseseaeeaseeeeeseeeas 70 e EI Tele ET 70 16 2 Launching into obt 70 16 3 Changing the obt 71 16 4 Rotating the orbital plane ccc eeeeee ee eeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeeeeaeeeseeaaeeeeeeaaeeesesaaeeeeseaeeeeseaas 71 16 5 Sychronising orbits cae eeeaaeeeeeeeseeeeeseaeeeeaaeseeeeeseaeessaeeseeeseeeeess 73 16 6 Landing runway approach 73 TET DOCKING EE 74 17 EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY escher Zeer eene EEN 77 Ii GEIER el e EE 77 17 2 Remote vessel Control een geet cevclecnevd pele ETA EAA EAT ergeet See 78 Fe W I Gelee Tute 78 18 FLIGHT CHECKLIST Siaa aai aae aaaea ar aa cccecsecdezacced scacecedts since aan iaaeaie aiaa aaan iias 80 18 1 Mission 1 Delta glider to ISS c ccc ececeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeaaeseeeeeseaeeesaeeseaeeseneeees 80 18 2 Mission 2 ISS to MIR transfer ccceccceceeeeeceee cess eeeeeeeeeeeecaeeeeeaeseeeeeseaeeesaeeseeeseeeess 82 18 3 Mission 3 De orbit from MIR 83 19 PLANETARIUM MODE cccccssecssseeeeseeeeeseeesne
36. 2 374 W 130km 34 496 N 098 413 W 130km 33 835 N 130 852 E 270km 32 831 N 130 847 E 270km 45 180 N O87 647 W 130km 32 821 N 106 013 W 130km 33 948 N 083 325 W 130km 47 746 N 010 350 E 270km 40 996 N O74 869 W 130km 41 988 N O097 435 W 130km 38 811 N 139 799 E 270km 41 439N O79 857 W 130km 40 821 N 088 734 W 130km A DAIN 003 499 E 130km 35 371 N OF 7 558 W 130km 34 575 N O90 674 W 130km 47 822 N 091 630 130km 40 285 N 021 841 E 130km 42 259N O084 459 W 130km 51 048 N 007 280 E 270km Status KSCX 112 70 Figure 16 Info and Navaid dialogs with VOR and ILS frequencies ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 49 The Orbit MED mode displays a list of elements and parameters which characterise the ship s orbit around a central body as well as a graphical representation In addition a target object ship orbital station or moon orbiting the same central body can be selected whose orbital track and parameters will then be displayed as well The instrument shows the osculating orbits at the current epoch i e the 2 body orbit corre sponding to the vessel s current state vectors The orbital parameters may change with time due to the influence of perturbing effects additional gravity sources distortions of the gravita tional field due to nonspherical planet shape atmospheric drag thruster action etc The orbital elements can be displayed with respect to one of two fra
37. 2 and 13 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 41 11 2 External views External views allow to have a look at any objects currently populating the simulated solar system including the Sun planets and moons spacecraft orbital stations and surface bases From cockpit view an external view of the current spaceship can be selected by pressing cl Other objects can be selected from the target list in the Camera dialog Low lech Two types of external camera modes are available Track views follow the object The camera can be rotated around the target object by press ing ell keys The and keys move the camera towards or away from the target Different camera panning modes for external views can be selected by pressing Fe or via the Track tab in the Camera dialog e Target relative The camera is fixed in the target s local frame of rotation Looking at a planet in this mode for example will rotate the camera together with the planet around its axis Len J Jt J will rotate the camera around the target s local axes e Global frame The camera is fixed in a non rotating reference frame Looking at a planet in this mode will show the planet rotating underneath the camera oli will ro tate the camera around the axes of the ecliptic frame of reference e Absolute direction This can be regarded as a mixture of the two modes above The di rection into which the camera points is fixed in an absolute frame but it is tilt
38. 900 seconds so you may want to fast forward but do not miss the end of the burn You probably won t be able to sufficiently reduce the inclination less than 0 5 in a single burn Repeat the process at the AN ascending node point Remember that the glider must be oriented in the opposite direction for this burn by clicking the Orbit Normal button Once the orbital planes are aligned you need to plot a rendezvous trajectory using the Sync Orbit MFD The procedure is the same as in the previous mission Tune your NAV1 receiver to MIR s transponder frequency at 132 10 and NAV2 to the IDS frequency of Dock 1 at 135 00 Once the sync manoeuvre is complete switch the HUD to Docking mode Club and switch one of the MFD displays to Docking al oh Slave both HUD and MFD to NAV1 Proceed with the docking manoeuvre to MIR in the same way as you did for docking at the ISS in the previous mission Don t forget to open the nose cone before making con tact ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 82 18 3 Mission 3 De orbit from MIR This mission completes your orbital roundtrip with a re entry to return to Kennedy Space Center Start Orbiter with the Checklists Deorbit scenario This picks up where the previous mis sion ended with the glider docked to the MIR station You are currently over the Pacific ocean already it the correct location for the deorbit burn Undock Col oh and engage retros for a few s
39. FD to HS mode MInSSOEStaesy 94s Get wei 1A TECNA 2002 END rth 0003 S mm DOUUT ooo0o ga t bs a SA ET 10 ELEVTRIM wo Takeoff Your glider is capable of runway takeoffs and landings on Earth and on any other planet if the atmospheric density is sufficient to provide aerodynamic lift e For takeoff engage main engines at full thrust You can do this by pushing the Main en gine sliders at the left of the panel to the top using the mouse make sure you push both sliders simultaneously or by pressing ea until engines are at full throttle If you have a joystick with throttle control you can use that to engage the main engines ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 15 e Your spacecraft will start to roll You can check the speed in meters second on the AIRSPD indicator of the Surface MFD or on the HUD head up display the value in the green box at the top right of the screen e When the airspeed reaches 100 m s pull back on the joystick to rotate or press and hold Ea eee Once clear of the runway press el to raise the landing gear When the atmosphere is too thin to produce enough lift for a runway takeoff for example when taking off from the Moon or when no runway is available you can use the gliders hover engines to lift off e Move the Hover slider on the instrument panel up by clicking and dragging with the mouse Alternatively press the J numpad key un
40. ORBITER User Manual Copyright c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 16 January 2005 Orbiter home www medphys ucl ac uk martins orbit orbit html or www orbitersim com ORBITER SPACE FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2000 2005 i Marth Copyright The ORBITER software documentation and the content on the ORBITER website is copy right 2000 2005 by Martin Schweiger ORBITER is free software in the sense that you are free to download copy and redistribute it for personal and non commerical purposes provided that the copyright notice is retained in the copy You are not allowed to charge a fee for the software without the consent of the author other than that to cover the cost of the distribution If a fee is charged it must be made clear to the purchaser that the software is freeware and that the fee is to cover the distribu tor s costs of providing the software Selling ORBITER or parts of it or bundling it into a com mercial product or using ORBITER to promote a commercial product without the author s consent is an infringement of the author s copyrights You are not allowed to modify the Orbiter binary code or the documentation distributed with the Orbiter software package You are however allowed to distribute modifications to configu ration scripts meshes or the sample source codes in the Orbitersdk samples folder provided that you make it clear to the recipients that you have made such modifications ORBITER is not in the public domain it
41. TER is a free flight simulator that goes beyond the confines of Earth s atmosphere Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to deploy a satellite rendezvous with the International Space Station or take the futuristic Delta glider for a tour through the solar system the choice is yours But make no mistake ORBITER is not a space shooter The emphasis is firmly on realism and the learning curve can be steep Be prepared to invest some time and effort to brush up on your maths and orbital mechanics background At the very least you should familiarise yourself with the primary spacecraft controls and in strumentation in this manual to get your ship off the ground Advanced missions like rendez vous manoeuvres or interplanetary trips will require a lot more effort Suggestions corrections bug reports and praise for the ORBITER software or this docu mentation are always welcome The preferred way to post your comments in particular if they may be of interest to other users is via the ORBITER mailing list or the ORBITER web forum available via links from the official Orbiter site www medphys ucl ac uk martins orbit orbit html alias www orbitersim com Unfortunately can t guarantee to answer all Orbiter related mail sent directly to me Before posting a bug report make sure you have got the latest ORBITER release and that your problem is not already documented in the FAQ the bug tracker or the bug forum all
42. U U U O ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 108 Appendix C Calculation of orbital elements Six scalar parameters elements are required to define the shape of an elliptic orbit its ori entation in space and a location along its trajectory Semi major axis Eccentricity Inclination Longitude of ascending node argument of periapsis true anomaly C 1 Calculating elements from state vectors Let r and v be the cartesian position and velocity vectors of an orbiting object in coordinates of a reference frame with respect to which the elements of the orbit are to be calculated e g geocentric equatorial for an orbit around Earth or heliocentric ecliptic for an orbit around the Sun We assume a right handed system with the x axis pointing towards the vernal equinox or other reference direction and the z axis pointing upwards Compute the following auxiliary vectors h rxv ry E Vy TEV HEV FNV rv n zxh h h 0 il geld d u Irl where h is a vector perpendicular to the orbital plane n points towards the ascending node the z component of n is zero and e is the eccentricity vector pointing towards the periapsis with u GM Gis the gravitational constant and M is the mass of the central body neglect ing the mass of the orbiter es5h om Semi major axis Eccentricity 2Eh e lel or e 1 4 Inclination h 1 arccos lhl Longitude of ascending node H Q arccos
43. V transmitter m DIR direction of NAV transmitter ship relative HSPD horizontal airspeed component m s ALT altitude m The altitude bar has a range from 1 to 10fm logarithmic scale VSPD vertical airspeed component m s The vertical speed bar has a range from 0 1 to 10 m s logarithmic scale Positive vertical speed is indicated by a green bar nega tive vertical speed by a yellow or red bar Red is is a surface impact warning Target indicator Shows the horizontal location of the slaved NAV transmitter ship rela tive on a logarithmic scale Range 1 to 104m Hspeed vector Shows the horizontal component of the airspeed vector ship relative on a logarithmic scale Range 0 1 to 10 m s VTOL cone This circle indicates the admissable deviation from the vertical touchdown vector as a function of altitude During VTOL landing the target indicator must remain in side the VTOL cone A red circle indicates that the ship is outside the cone The VTOL cone is displayed only when the MFD is slaved to a VTOL transmitter ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 5 o 13 4 Horizontal Situation Indicator The Horizontal Situation Indicator HSI consists of two independent displays Each display can be slaved to a NAV receiver and show directional and relative bearing information The instruments accept data from surface based transmitters such as VOR and ILS The function is similar to instrument navigation systems
44. aeaeid E E E T 39 E Beie el 39 CAMERA MODES wsesecesntevcsecscncccevececescteceatcececeeeteceessacecenccs SEENEN EES 41 elt IR 41 External VIEWS cirina aaaeeeaa SEENEN NEESS EENS 42 Selecting the field Of view cccccceseseeceeeeeceaeeeeeaeeeeneeceaeeeeaaeseeaaeseneeseaeeetaaeseeaaeseeneeeaas 43 Storing and recalling camera Modes sesssssssessiesietiettietttetttetttnttnn nenn nen nnn nen nenn nnnn 44 HEAD UP DISPLAY eege 45 General information display 45 Camera target mode iSplay ccccccceeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeseaeeeeaaeseeeeeeeeeesaeseeaeeseneeeeaas 46 Engine information display eisesssrisrnrorinerenssiernuninennn ainnean eai araia 46 S rfa e MONG TEE 46 OMIT IM ODE E 47 Docking Modo EE 47 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 2 13 MULTIFUNCTIONAL DISPLAY MODESG sees seEEERREESREEEREEEEEREEEEEREEEREREEER REENEN SNn 48 13 1 COM NAV receiver Setup eiie aaaea aa aaia a anran iaaea aaarnas aaan ea iaaa 48 eO Ti oT ele Ee Eeer OE AE A E 50 13 3 VORWNTOL aeiia a ie aea ER 52 13 4 Horizontal Situation Indicator cece ceeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eee eeeeaeeeeaaeseneeeseaeeesaeeseeeseeetess 54 1325 IDOCKING EE 55 13 6 Surface Si begeestert aa a aei a eaaa aa lent rev aa deia patient anan iaraa er 57 UE Oe EE 58 13 8 Align orbital Plane oo eee arana a eter ANE AEKn aa E ERA Ra OAA Ea a ARARA 60 ISCH Synchronise Orbit pi baie sets eel paleinh bpeeeiet hip aie ania 61 EEN LA Tans EE 6
45. al can be fed to the Docking MFD to obtain dock alignment information It can also be fed to the Docking HUD to display the approach path as a series of rectangles IDS frequencies are available from a vessel s information sheet Len J 1 J To find out how to set up XPDR and IDS transmitters via a cfg script see the 3DModel docu ment ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 69 16 Basic flight manoeuvres The following flight techniques are mostly my own invention They seem plausible but since am not a space flight expert although an enthusiastic amateur they may be inefficient or plainly wrong Corrections and suggestions are always welcome 16 1 Surface flight By surface flight mean flight paths close to a planetary surface which are not actually orbits i e where the gravitational field of the planet must be countered by applying an acceleration vector rather than the free fall situation of an orbit Surface to surface transfers from one surface base to another typically involve surface flight If the planet has no atmosphere In this case the only forces acting on your ship are the planet s gravitational field and what ever thrust vectors you apply Most notably there is no atmospheric friction to reduce the ship s airspeed This causes a flight model rather different from a normal airplane The sim plest but probably not the most efficient strategy for surface flight is e Use hover thrust
46. as critical as for the Space Shuttle because the glider can use its engines for a powered approach When the distance to target drops below 500 km tune your NAV1 receiver to frequency 112 70 KSCX VOR and NAV2 to frequency 134 20 Rwy 33 ILS using the COMMS MED mode Right stit c Turn the right MFD to Horizontal Situation Indicator HSI mode Right snit H Leave the left display slaved to NAV1 and flip the right display to NAV2 Right shit F Right zl ah Use the course deviation and glide slope indicators of the HSI displays for adjusting the approach path They work like standard aircraft instruments Lower landing gear aj Deploy airbrakes Len JB as required Touchdown speed is 150 m s Use wheel brakes J and ie on rollout until you come to a halt Rollout at the KSC SLF ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 83 19 Planetarium mode Lost in space If you lose your bearings in the middle of an inter xj planetary flight Orbiter offers guidance in the form of an inflight planetarium with grids and object markers This mode is con V Planetarium mode F3 trolled via a dialog box Lew JE and a shortcut for turning the planetarium on and off is o The following items are available IV Celestial grid Markers for user defined objects on the celestial sphere WI Markers for user defined surface labels I Ecliptic grid e Celestial grid lines Earth equatoria
47. ate a monochrome green on black surface outline bitmap 256x128 BMP to be used by the Map MFD The file name should be lt Planetname gt M bmp 21 4 Surface bases To create a new spaceport on the surface of a planet the following steps are required 1 Inthe planet s configuration file e Increase the entry for NumBases by 1 or add the line NumBases 1 if no bases are defined for the planet yet e Addaline Base lt X gt lt Name gt lt Long gt lt Lat gt where lt X gt is the base s numeric ID should be set to the new value of NumBases lt Name gt is the base s name which identifies its configuration file and lt Long gt and lt Lat gt define the base s position on the planet surface in equatorial coordinates degrees Eastern Longitudes and northern Latitudes are counted positive western longitudes and southern latitudes are negative Example NumBases 1 Base Habana 82 5 23 0 2 Create a configuration file for the base lt Name gt cfg where lt Name gt corresponds to the base s name in the planet configuration file The format of the base definition file is as follows NAME lt Base name gt SIZE lt size gt OBJECTSIZE lt osize gt MAPOBJECTSTOSPHERE lt spmap gt BEGIN _NAVBEACON lt NAV list gt END_NAVBEACON BEGIN_OBJECTLIST lt Object list gt END_OBJECTLIST where lt Base name gt is the base s logical name which need not correspond to the entry in the planet confi
48. ation ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 12 performance Note that some older graphics drivers may not allow 3 D applications to run in window mode 3 6 Joystick tab J Orbiter Launchpad Scenario Parameters Visual effects Modules Video Joys Joystick device Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro DI La el E Main engine control Z axis ki IV Ignore throttle setting on launch m Calibration Throttle saturation 950 Deadzone 250 O RBI ER ORBITER pimmee Space Flight Simulator Hel i were tbirersim com 2000 700 Ma Schweiger AA D Exit Figure 6 Launchpad dialog Joystick tab Joystick device Lists all attached joysticks Main engine control Define the joystick axis which controls the main thrusters Try different options if the throttle control on your joystick doesn t work in Orbiter Ignore throttle setting on launch If ticked the joystick throttle will be ignored at the launch of a scenario util the user manipulates it Otherwise the throttle setting is used immediately Deadzone Use this to define how soon the joystick will respond when moved out of its centre position Smaller values make it respond sooner Increase if attitude thrusters do not cut out completely in neutral position Throttle saturation Defines the tolerance zone at the minimum and maximum range of the throttle control at which the joystick reports ze
49. be stowed in its transport position by pressing the RMS Stow button This is only possible as long as no object is attached to the arm e Payload can be released directly from the bay by pressing the Purge button Technical specifications ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 33 Length Wingspan Height Mass Max cargo SME thrust OMS thrust Tank Length Diameter Mass SRB Length Diameter Mass Thrust 39 16 m 24 54 m 14 29 m 2041166 kg 104326 kg 28803 kg 6 26 10 N 5 01 10 N 5 34 10 N 47 83 m 9 68 m 35425 kg 719115 kg 756445 kg 45 7m 3 8m 5 9m 87543 kg 502126 kg 589670 kg 11791820 N Orbiter Tank assembly Length Height 57 55 m 24 44 m liftoff end of mission vac liftoff empty propellant tube max empty propellant total liftoff Orbiter Tank SRBs launch assembly Length Height 57 91 m 24 44 m a principal moments of inertia tensor mass normalised assuming homogeneous density distribution P including Orbiter mount brackets Atlantis specific key controls LI Jettison separate SRBs or main tank k Operate cargo bay doors The cargo bay doors cannot be closed when the Ku band antenna is deployed el Operate landing gear activated only after tank separation Len JB Operate split rudder speed brake Len J u Deploy retract Ku band antenna The antenna can only be
50. be used to move the camera towards or away from the view target The mouse wheel acts like the EJ and ie keys The camera direction can be rotated by holding down the right mouse button and dragging the mouse This works both in external and cockpit views The mouse can of course also be used to select and manipulate dialog controls ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 26 9 Spacecraft classes The following standard spacecraft types are currently available in the Orbiter standard distri bution Many more can be downloaded as add ons See the Orbiter web site for a list of add on repositories 9 1 Delta glider The Delta glider is the ideal ship for the novice pilot to get spaceborne Its futuristic design concept high thrust and extremely low fuel consumption make it easy to achieve orbit and it can even be used for interplanetary travel The winged design provides aircraft like handling in the lower atmosphere while the vertically mounted hover thrusters allow vertical takeoffs and landings independent of atmospheric conditions and runways Delta glider model and textures by Roger Frying Tiger Long Instrument panels by Martin Schweiger Two versions are available The standard DG is equipped with main retro and hover engines The scramjet version DG S has in addition two airbreathing scramjet engines fitted which can be used for supersonic atmospheric flight The scramjets have an operational airspee
51. camera orientation If the Target lock box in the dialog is ticked the camera is always automatically pointing towards the current camera target If the box is not ticked the camera direction can be modified manually by pressing tJ tJ gt J lt J See also Section 21 3 on how to add new observer sites to a planet definition file ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 42 Y Orbiter Camera 3 Orbiter Camera Target Track Ground Foy Preset Target Track Ground Foy Preset Track view Ground observer location Movable target relative Earth z Movable absolute direction KSC Pad 39B T Movable global frame Pad 33B Tower zl Apply Current Target from Target to Sun D Panning speed Position Direction lt gt fing 0 072954 Lat 51 512477 I Target lock Figure 9 Selecting a track camera mode left or a ground based view right In external views a display of target parameters can be toggled by pressing DI 11 3 Selecting the field of view The camera aperture can be adjusted under the FOV tab in the Camera dialog The sup ported range is between 10 and 90 Orbiter defines the field of view as the vertical aperture between the top and bottom edge of the simulation window The most natural aperture de pends on the size of the simulation window on your screen and the distance between your eyes and the screen Typical values are between 40 an
52. celeration is given by the gradient of the potential a VU Window focus mode e Focus follows mouse If this option is ticked the input focus is switched between the Orbiter simulation window and any open dialog boxes by moving the mouse over the win dow If unticked the focus is switched in normal Windows style by clicking the window Orbit stabilisation e Enable stabilisation If this option is enabled Orbiter uses an alternative method to update the state vectors of orbiting bodies under certain conditions where only the perturbations of the osculating 2 body orbital elements with respect to a dominant gravity source are dynamically propagated This can help to avoid orbit deterioration at high time compressions e G field perturbation limit Defines the upper limit of perturbation of the gravity field of the main gravity source under which stabilisation is enabled A higher value will switch to stabilisation mode even if the 2 body assumption is not very accurate Default value is 0 01 1 e Orbit step limit This entry allows to limit the application of orbit stabilisation to time steps which propagate an object by more than a given fraction of its full orbital path More precisely orbit stabilisation will only be applied if this condition is satisfied vAt gt a 2ar where v is the orbital velocity r is the length of the radius vector At is the time step and a is the user specified step limit Default value is 0
53. city to achieve orbit Your flight path indicator should stay above 0 Now is a good time to activate the Orbit mode in one of your MFDs This shows the shape of your current orbit the green curve in relation to the planet surface the grey circle together with a list of orbital parameters along the left side of the display You should switch the display to current orbital plane projection mode by clicking on the PRJ button until Prj SHP is shown in the top right corner of the display At the moment your orbit will be a rather eccentric ellipse which for the most part is be low Earth s surface This means that you are still on a ballistic trajectory rather than in a stable orbit As you keep gaining tangential velocity the orbit will start to expand Once the green curve is completely above the planet surface and sufficiently high above the atmosphere you will have entered orbit At this point the most important pieces of information from the Orbit display are the orbital velocity Vel and apoapsis distance ApD For a low Earth orbit you need to achieve a velocity of at least 7800 m s Once you reach this value you will see the orbit rising rapidly above Earth s surface At the same time the apoapsis distance the highest point of the orbit will start to grow Keep firing your engines until ApD reaches about 6 670M This corresponds to an altitude of 300km Now cut the engines You are now nearly in
54. ctangle in local coordinates of the surface base Note that the y coordinate is the elevation above ground Default 0 0 0 SCALE V Object size in the three coordinate axes Default 1 1 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX1 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for walls Default none TEX2 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for front gate Default none TEX3 SFF _ Texture name and u v scaling factors for roof Default none V Vector F Float S String HANGAR2 A hangar type building with a tent shaped roof The following parameters are supported Parameter Type Description POS V Centre of the object s base rectangle in local coordinates of the ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 93 surface base Note that the y coordinate is the elevation above ground Default 0 0 0 SCALE V Object size in the three coordinate axes Default 1 1 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX1 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for front and back walls Default none TEX2 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for side walls Default none TEX3 SFF Texture name and u v scaling factors for roof Default none ROOFH F Roof height from base to ridge Default 1 2 building height V Vector F Float S String TANK A fuel tank like upright cylinder with flat top The following parameters are supported Parameter Type Description POS V Centre of the objec
55. ctory is toggled with el wl The trajectory is displayed as a solid bright yellow line The calculation is performed in discrete time steps starting from the current source position or if displayed from the HTO ejection point Since the calculation of the trajectory can be time consuming it is not auto matically updated but can be refreshed with anlul The interval between time steps is ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 64 automatically adjusted to provide consistent accuracy The number of time steps and thus the length of the trajectory can be selected via an zl The number of time steps and the total time interval covered by the trajectory are displayed under Num orbit in the MFD Interplanetary transfers Using the Transfer MFD for Earth to Moon orbits should be straightforward For interplanetary transfers e g Earth to Mars a few caveats apply e For interplanetary transfers the reference should be the Sun and the source orbit should be the planet currently being orbited This is because the ship s orbit w r t the Sun will be severely distorted by the planet e The ship should be in an orbit with zero inclination against the ecliptic before ejection The relative inclination between source and target orbits cannot be adjusted it is simply given by the relative inclination between the planets orbits e The ejection burn should take place with the Sun in opposition on the planet s dark side s
56. culation HasElements Bool If TRUE the initial position velocity is calculated from the provided set of orbital elements otherwise from an explicit position velocity pair ignored if module supports position velocity calculation Notes e If the module calculates the planet position and velocity from perturbation terms then the value of ErrorLimit will affect the number of terms used for the calculation A lower value will increase the number of required terms and thus the calculation time The valid range for ErrorLimit depends on the module but is typically 1e 3 lt ErrorLimit lt 1e 8 Orbital parameters Ignored if module supports position velocity calculation or HasElements FALSE Item Type Description Epoch Float Orbital element reference epoch e g 2000 ElReference Flag ParentEquator Of Ecliptic orbit reference frame default Ecliptic SemiMajorAxis Float Orbit semi major axis m Eccentricity Float Orbit eccentricity Inclination Float Orbit inclination against reference plane rad LongAscNode Float Longitude of ascending node rad LongPerihelion Float Longitude of periapsis rad MeanLongitude Float Mean longitude at epoch rad Physical parameters Item Type Description Mass Float Planet mass k Size Float Mean planet radius m Rotation elements Item Type Description SidRotPeriod Float Siderial rotation period s SidRotOffset Float Rotation at epoch rad Obliquity Float Obliquity angle between
57. d range of Mach 3 8 The glider comes with operating landing gear nose cone docking port airlock door deploy able radiator and animated aerodynamic control surfaces It now supports particle exhaust effects Technical specifications 12 0 10 kg empty orbiter 11 4 10 kg main fuel load 0 6 10 kg RCS fuel load 24 0 10 kg total Length 17 76 m Wingspan 17 86 m Thrust 2x 1 2 10 N main engines 2x 37 107 N wing mounted retro thrusters 3x9 0 10 N hover thrusters Isp 4 10 mie fuel specific impulse in vacuum Inertia PMI 15 5 22 1 7 7 m Stall C 1 0 Stall AOA 20 Main and overhead instrument panels Turn the panels on and off with ei The glider supports three panels which can be selected with o lU and Le Jit ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 27 Nosecone airlock operation HUD mode 7 selector main throt tle gimbal control hover throt tle balance control scram throt tle gimbal control left right wheel brake left right scramjet temperature diffusor combustion exhaust Torque angular acceleration angular velocity indicators left MFD AF RCS selectors SSS navmodes pitch trim control main RCS fuel status scram fuel status main engine status AOA indicator slip indicat
58. d 60 You can adjust the field of view by clicking one of the aperture buttons moving the slider or entering a numerical value in the edit box Y Orbiter Camera Target Track Ground FOV Preset Field of view 1 DH DH DH DH DH D m joo degrees vertical Figure 10 Camera field of view selection The keyboard shortcuts are zj to decrease the FOV and xj to increase the FOV The cur rent field of view is displayed in the status section in the top left corner of the simulation win dow ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 43 11 4 Storing and recalling camera modes Orbiter provides an easy method to store and recall camera modes in a preset list Click on the Preset tab in the Camera dialog Any available modes are listed here To activate a mode double click it in the list or select the mode and click Recall To store the current camera mode as a new preset in the list simply click Add This will pro duce a new entry with a short description To delete a mode click Delete or Clear to clear the whole list Y Orbiter Camera xj Target Track Ground FOV I Preset STS 101 Track relative Add STS 101 Cockpi 3 STS 101 Ground Delete STS 101 Ground Des TS 101 Track global Clear Ganymede Track global Cape Canaveral Track relative Recall Figure 11 The camera mode preset list Each entry remembers its track mode position target and aperture The
59. devices Tick this box if Orbiter does not display 3D devices or screen modes correctly This option enforces a hardware scan whenever Orbiter is launched and skips the device data stored in device dat Make sure to tick this box after upgrading your graphics hardware or DirectX video drivers to make Orbiter aware of the changes Try stencil buffer Enables stencil buffering if the video mode supports it Stencil buffers can improve various visual effects for example provide support for alpha blended shadows but have a slight impact on frame rates If the selected video mode doesn t support stencil buffers this option is ignored Full Screen Select this option to run Orbiter in fullscreen mode You can choose the screen resolution and colour depth from the lists provided Only modes supported by the selected device are listed here Higher resolution and colour depth will improve the visual appearance at the cost of reduced performance In addition you can select the Disable vertical sync option This allows Orbiter to update a frame without waiting for a synchronisation signal from the monitor This can improve frame rates but may lead to visual artefacts tearing Window Select this option to run Orbiter in a window You can specify the size of the render window here For best results use a width height ratio close to 4 3 or tick the Force 4 3 as pect ratio button to keep the optimal aspect ratio Large window sizes can reduce simul
60. direction indicator will be displayed at the current source position which shows the ship s direction w r t the source This helps with timing the ejection burn e g direction indicator pointing away from the Sun Hypothetical transfer orbit Unlike in Orbit mode this MFD allows you to plot a hypothetical transfer orbit HTO which allows to set up what if scenarios without having to change the actual orbit The HTO dis play is toggled on off via sl zl It is calculated assuming that somewhere along the current source orbit a prograde or retrograde orbit ejection burn occurs The HTO has two parame ters the longitude at which the ejection burn occurs adjusted with aal kh and the veloc ity change during the burn adjusted with snit The HTO is displayed as a dashed green curve in the MFD The position of the ejection burn is indicated by a dashed green ra dius vector A number of parameters is shown when the HTO is turned on TLe True longitude of orbit ejection point DTe Time to ejection point s Dv Velocity difference resulting from ejection burn m s TLi True longitude of interception with target orbit if applicable DTi Time to interception with target orbit s if applicable Intercept indicator If the source orbit or if shown the HTO intersects the target orbit the intersection point is marked by a grey line and the intersection longitude is displayed TLi The position of the target at the time w
61. dows MV Particle streams MV Specular reflections from objects I Sun glare effect Ambient light level 0 255 f 0 ORBITER gt e wun Keele aya weigor Help Eat Figure 3 Launchpad dialog Visual effects tab Planetary effects e Cloud layers Render clouds as a separate mesh layer for appropriate planets e Cloud shadows Render cloud shadows cast on the planet surface Only planets whose configuration files contain a CloudShadowDepth entry lt 1 will actually render cloud shad ows e Horizon haze Render intensity graded glowing horizon layer for planets with atmos pheres e Specular reflections from water surfaces Render water surfaces on planets with specular reflection effects e Planet night lights Render city lights on the dark side of planet surfaces where avail able e Night light level Defines the brightness of night city lights Valid range is 0 to 1 ignored if planet night lights are disabled General effects e Vessel shadows Enable shadows cast by spacecraft on planet surfaces e Object shadows Enable dynamic shadows of ground based objects such as buildings ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 10 e Specular reflections from objects Render reflective surfaces like solar panels window panes or metallic surfaces May degrade performance e Reentry flames Render glowing plasma hull during reentry e Particle streams Render ionised exhaust gases and vapour tra
62. e accessible via the Custom functions dialog Press Ler J F4J to get a list of the available functions Flight Data Moni My dialog Operate the engines of any spacecraft froma dialog box Figure 30 Custom functions dialog for access to plugin functions 17 1 Frame rate monitor This is a little dialog box to keep track of Orbiter s frame rate performance It shows the frames per second FPS in a graphical display over the last 200 seconds This is a useful tool to estimate the impact of complex scenery and visual effects on the simulation perform ance This function is only available if the Framerate module is active see Section 3 4 and is accessible via the Frame Rate entry in the Custom functions panel Len Usch Orbiter Frame Rate it xi FPS 88 FPS x10 o Figure 31 Frame rate monitor ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 77 17 2 Remote vessel control The Remote Vessel Control plugin allows to remotely control the engines of all spacecraft This tool is available only if the Rcontrol module is active The remote control dialog box is accessible via the Custom functions panel Len Uech The dialog contains the a vessel selec tion list gauges for main retro and hover engines controls for RCS thrusters in rotational and linear mode and access to the standard navmode functions Orbiter Remote Vessel Control xj r Vessel GLO h E Engines lt Retro Mair
63. e dominant object 13 3 VOR VTOL The VOR VTOL MFD mode is a navigational instrument used for planetary surface flight and vertical takeoff landing In addition to altitude and airspeed readouts it contains a graphical in dicator of the relative position of a radio navigation transmitter VOR very high frequency omnidirectional range This MFD mode can be slaved to one of the ship s NAV receivers The current receiver and frequency is shown in the upper right corner If a signal is received the transmitter ID is dis played in the second line If the ship supports more than a single NAV receiver a different re ceiver can be selected with stit N To set the receiver frequency use the NAV MFD mode see section 13 1 The instrument can also be used for vertical instrument landing VTOL When slaved to a VTOL transmitter the target indicator shows the relative position of the corresponding launch pad Key options al NJ Select NAV receiver ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 52 MED control layout VOR VTOL Select NAV receiver SEL MNU MFD display components VORZ VTOL NAV type an NAV receiver NAV distance frequency and direction l vertical speed horizontal air ma spred ma altitude m horizontal speed vector vertical speed bar log scale VTOL OL cone altitude bar target position log scala indicator DIST distance to NA
64. e glider s centre of gravity with AUTO both engines are set to parallel thrust and the gimbal angle is adjusted so that the total thrust vector is D D aligned with the centre of gravity even if the two engines produce different thrust The Yaw gimbal DIV and AUTO modes automatic mode remains active until another P k mode is selected The current setting of pitch and yaw gimbals is shown by indicators next to the controls The scramjet version DG S has additional gimbal controls for the scramjet engines The scramjets can only be gimballed in a single axis pitch The controls are identical to the main pitch controls Vessel specific key controls Operate landing gear Operate nose cone docking mechanism oz le Open close outer airlock door cui J B Deploy retract airbrakes fe D Deploy retract radiators Ctrl Space Open animation control dialog box ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 29 The all new Shuttle A designed by Roger Frying Tiger Long A medium size freight vessel designed preliminary for low gravity low density environments The current design allows to achieve LEO from Earth s surface but you need to plan your ascent carefully not to run out of fuel The vessel has a set of two main and two hover thrusters plus a pair of auxiliary thruster pods which can be rotated 180 for main hover or re
65. e linearly accelerated forward back left right and up down Translate Forward back Translate Left right Translate Up down enge ihun L Jnumpaa Bhima Bhu e Jnumpaa Joystick rudder control Joystick forward back Or Joystick left right Button 2 Figure 22 Attitude thrusters in translational linear mode For fine control of attitude thrusters with the keyboard use e LNumpad key combinations This engages the engines at 10 thrust o An important control function is the Kill rotation sequence I Numpad This will automatically engage appropriate attitude thrusters to stop the ship s rotation ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 68 15 Radio navigation aids Orbiter uses various types of radio transmitters and receivers to provide information for spacecraft instrument navigation systems Most vessels are equipped with one or more NAV radio receivers which can be tuned to the frequency of a navigation radio transmitter and feed the data to the vessel s navigation subsystems To tune a NAV receiver open the Comm Control MFD mode Cal ch select a receiver am J and enl and tune through the frequency band snit L ae lan Lal The following types of navaid radio transmitters are currently supported in Orbiter VOR surface based omnidirectional radio beacons typically with a range of several hun dred kilometres VOR signals can be fed into the HSI horizontal situation indicator MFD or t
66. e the velocity marker is centered on the screen engage main thrusters until orbit eccentricity Ecc reaches a minimum and periapsis distance PeD equals ApD this will require only a short burn ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 80 e Switch to Orbit HUD mode Col ah e Switch the left MFD to Align Orbital Plane snit aJ Select ISS snit TJ ISS e Ideally the orbital planes should already be roughly aligned Rinc within 5 You now need to fine adjust the plane e As your ship P approaches an intersection point with the target plane AN or DN Ro tate the ship perpendicular to your current orbital plane 90 on the Orbit HUD inclination ladder If you are approaching the ascending node AN turn orbit antinormal If you are approaching the descending node DN turn orbit normal You can use the Auto naviga tion modes LJ for orbit normal and for orbit antinormal to obtain the correct orienta tion e Assoon as the Engage engines indicator starts flashing engage full main engines The relative inclination between the orbital planes should now decrease e Kill thrusters as soon as the Kill thrust indicator appears If you could not reduce the or bit inclination sufficiently within 0 5 repeat the process at the next nodal point e Once the planes are aligned the next step is intercepting the ISS Switch to Sync Orbit MED Can xl Switch the reference point to Inte
67. econds CJ numpad to get clear of the sta tion Close the nose cone k Turn retrograde UJ When the glider s attitude has stabilised and the retrograde direction is no longer ob structed by the station engage main engines at 100 Kill engines when the perihel distance PeD in Orbit MFD has decreased to 5 600M Turn prograde J When attitude has stabilised roll the glider level with the horizon LJ Switch to Surface HUD mode Co Turn left MFD into Surface mode Left snit s You should reach 100 km altitude about 4000 km from the target Dst 4 000M in Map MFD At this point aerodynamic forces will become noticeable At 50 km altitude turn off attitude stabilisation LJ disable the RCS ol lued and make sure that AF CTRL is set to ON Lift forces will cause the glider to pitch up To bleed off energy you should perform left and right banks Due to the relatively high lift drag ratio of the glider you need very steep bank angles 90 Your current flight path passes south of the KSC so you should initially bank left to cor rect your approach path check Map MFD The bank angle will determine your rate of descent and airspeed If you come up short to the KSC reduce the bank angles to slow your descent and reduce atmospheric decelera tion If you come in too fast or too high increase the bank angles to increase the descent slope and atmospheric friction Timing of the reentry path is not quite
68. ection MFD control layout Select orbit reference Orbit Earth Frm EQU Prj SHP l Shift RJ Orbit projec tion mode Auto select reference Shift al Select target Shift f Unselect tar jet Shift jN Display mode MOD ses shit F J SEL MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 50 MFD display components 1 Graphic display mode In graphical mode the Orbit MFD shows the ship s orbit green and optionally the orbit of a target object yellow around the reference body surface represented in grey The display also shows the ship s current position radius vector the periapsis lowest point of the orbit and apoapsis highest point and the ascending and descending nodes w r t the reference plane The user can select the plane into which the orbit representations are projected orbital plane of the ship or target ecliptic or equatorial plane Orbit Earth Projection Orbit plane reference Frame of Descending reference Spacecraft orbit node Line of nodes Apoapsis Radius vector Periapsis Target orbit Planet surface Ascending G field contribution node 2 Orbital element list mode In list mode the ship s orbital elements and other orbital parameters are listed
69. ed with re spect to the target s local frame Con Jit joy will rotate the camera around the target s local axes e Target to Positions camera so that the specified object is behind the target e Target from Positions camera so the specified object is behind the camera In Target to and Target from modes camera rotation ol The deactivated but radial camera movement with fea and j is still available Ground based views place the camera at a fixed point on the surface of a planet This is a good way to follow the launch of a rocket from a spectator s perspective or view the final ap proach of a Shuttle from the control tower To select a ground based view select the Ground tab in the Camera dialog You can now select one of the predefined observer locations from the lists e g Earth KSC Pad 39 Tower Alternatively you can just specify the planet and enter the location by hand providing longitude in degrees positive towards east latitude in degrees positive towards north and altitude in metres e g Earth 80 62 28 62 15 Click Apply to jump to the selected location You can also directly use the current camera location in ground observer mode by clicking pressing j and amp J The speed at which the observer moves can be adjusted with the Panning speed slider in the dialog box in the range from 0 1 to 10 mis There are two ways to select the
70. eed stall speed Hover Main Retro Numpad perm le Numpad perm lee temp 100 limped temp 100 Joystick throttle control Figure 20 Acceleration from main retro and hover thrusters ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 67 The maximum vacuum thrust ratings for main retro and hover thrusters as well as the current spacecraft mass are displayed in the vessel s info sheet ol J Values are in Newton 1N 1kg m SH Note that the actual ratings may be lower in the presence of ambient atmospheric pressure 14 2 Attitude thrusters Attitude thrusters are small engines which are engaged in pairs to enable rotation or transla tion of the spacecraft In rotation mode attitude thrusters are fired in cross linked pairs to pro duce a rotational moment e g front right and back left to rotate left In translation mode thrusters are fired in parallel pairs to produce a linear moment e g front right and back right to accelerate left The current attitude mode is indicated in the top left corner of the HUD Att ROT and Ait LIN and can be toggled with U numpad Attitude thrusters are controlled with the joystick or keyboard In rotation mode Rotate Yaw Rotate Pitch Rotate Bank 4 Numpad L6 Jumpad Joystick rudder control Joystick forward back Joystick left right Or Joystick left right Button 2 Figure 21 Attitude thrusters in rotational mode In translation mode the spacecraft can b
71. eeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaeeeeeeaaeeeeeeaaeeeeesaeeeeeeaeeeeeeaeeeeseaeeeeee 5 Reine EE 5 lef UE Le WEE 5 le af CU 6 THE LAUNO HAA D a ee aara ra a r aaa arara SA EE 7 SCOMANMO TAD TEE 7 Parameters taD E 8 VEER tal sssri iinan anainn a NA a A ENAERE AATA RA a 10 Modulos taD EE 11 Video taD EE 12 SOYSUCK TAD EE 13 COUGAR acne ea ccc Sects cena E E Ee e aeaa aa ae a 14 GETTING HELP enee E E E E 19 KEYBOARD INTERFACE 1 scscccseeeeeseeeseeeeesneeenseeeeneeeesaesaseeeenseeeseseesseaeseseeeenseeeesanes 20 E E E A EAE A E E AAT AEA 20 Spacecraft Controls enges serge geesde AER AER 21 External Camera VIGWS essiensa Reg See eerie EE einen ege ES 22 Internal elei 22 Oe te 24 JOYSTICK INTERFACE arinean arrer aapne aeaaaee aAa Bea ea Ae aea e iaraa Ee EEE 25 MOUSE INTERFACE areare e 26 SPACECRAFT CLASEN ee 27 Re Bel e TE 27 SHUT A E E E AE E age 20 Shuttle PB PTV geegtggesese senge ged AER AER EEEE EES 31 Dragoni yos inaia aaRS AEEA AAAA ied 31 Space Shuttle Atlantis esoe cianga aasian ana Ean eaaa Reak 32 International Space Station IG 34 Space Station MIR EE 35 Lumar Wheel Station TEE 36 Hubble Space Telescope netr nesn nesr netnnstnnsennssnnnstnssensenn nnna 37 CDEF Satellite ices ceeded sens cian cdees teens Saaweeresudeedanedtes exe cteenbsdh aayated aiaa aaraa aa ai 38 OBJECT INFORMATION ccccscscsseecesceeenseeeesaeeeseeeensnaeeeseeesaaeseseeeeneeeeseaeseseaesnseaeenees 39 VE 39 SPACE POMS N EE A T E E E pelcateydan
72. eeesneeeeeeeesaeseseeeenseeeseaesesnaesaseaeeeeeaeas 84 20 DEMO MODE ege 86 21 ORBITER CONFIGURATION ccccscsecceseeeseeeeesneeenseeeeeeeeeseaeseseeeenseeeseeseseaeseseeeenseeeneas 87 21 1 Master Configuration le 87 21 2 Planetary systems annaia a iN Ee Eaa E AA REENEN NEEN 88 21 3 VE CN 89 21 4 Surface bases isis iciie ketal given neg i he eget 92 21 5 Adding objects to surface bases AA 93 EAR Adding CUSTOM ET 97 EAR ele UE 97 APPENDIX A MFD QUICK REFERENCE ccssccssseecsseeeeeseeeseeeeeseeeeeseeesseeseseeeenseeeeseeeeas 102 APPENDIX B SOLAR SYSTEM CONSTANTS AND PARAMETERS ss ccseeeeseees 106 B 1 Astrodynamic constants and parameters ecccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeeeaeeeeeeaeeeenenaeeeeee 106 B 2 Planetary mean orbits J2000 0 eee cece eeeeeeeenne ee ee eae eset eaaeeeeeeeaeeeeeeaeeeeetaeeeeneaeeeene 106 B 3 Planetary orbital element centennial rates AA 107 DA Planets Selected physical parameters cccccecsceceeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseeeesaeeeeaeeeeeeeeaas 107 Bb Rotation elemes ararat eia ERA A RAAR A E VRAA RANE CAAA Taa ARA KCR AA P ARAA RASARE 108 B 6 Atmospheric parametrs ioeie inrano nreiaa ruei pi AAAA R ARANESA aiy aaran ia ESAERAK 108 APPENDIX C CALCULATION OF ORBITAL ELEMENTG cccseccsseeessseesseeeeeeeeeeseeees 109 C 1 Calculating elements from state vechors ten nsnnnennneen nenn 109 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 3 1 introduction ORBI
73. eel brake where applicable 6 3 External camera views Es Move camera away from target object E Move camera towards target object Ctrl Rotate camera around object MER In ground based camera views Lon fess will move the observer position sl and Page Down will change the observer altitude and 7 J gt J will rotate the observer direction unless locked to the target 6 4 Internal cockpit view The two multifunctional displays MFD on the left and right side of the screen are controlled via left right Shift key combinations where the left Shift key addresses the left MFD the right shift key addresses the right MFD The Head up display HUD and MFDs are visible only in internal cockpit view Toggle between generic 2D panel and 3D virtual cockpit modes if supported by the current spacecraft L Rotate view direction F 3 RH Return to default view direction Scroll instrument panel in 2D panel view Ctrl R Switch to neighbour panel if available in 2D panel view ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 22 E l T Lt Toggle HUD display on off Switch HUD mode EE E R HUD reference selection Orbit HUD opens reference selection input box Docking HUD steps through available NAV receivers aJe Docking HUD Reference selection bypassing XPDR and IDS transmitters
74. elected either directly see section 6 4 for Keyboard commands or by pressing ele to bring up a menu Each MFD mode may support specific parameters which can be selected with the appropriate Shift key combination You don t need to remember the key codes since MFDs which allow arameter selection provide a menu mode which can be selected with el Dressing Ga again will switch to the next menu page or return to the MED display To select a menu item press shit with the highlighted character key 13 1 COM NAV receiver setup The COM NAV setup MFD mode provides an interface to the ship s navigation radio receivers which feed data to the navigation instruments It also allows to select the frequency of the ship s transponder which sends a signal to identify the vessel The mode is activated by Gaz or via the Comms entry from the MED mode menu aech The MFD lists frequency and signal source information for all NAV radios NAV1 to NAVn The number of receivers n depends on the vessel class A NAV receiver can be selected from the list by ml land an L The selected receiver is highlighted in yellow see below Key options ml Select previous NAV receiver snitt Select next NAV receiver Step down frequency 1 kHz Step up frequency 1 kHz Step down frequency 0 05 kHz i EG Step up frequency 0 05 kHz XPDR Transmitter
75. elta glider a powerful futuristic spacecraft aligned and ready for takeoff e You can always exit the simulation by pressing lol or Lar leo or by clicking Exit on the main menu EJ Orbiter saves the current simulation status in the Current status scenario so you can continue your flight later by selecting this scenario Camera modes You are in an external camera mode looking towards your ship e You can rotate the camera around your ship by pressing and holding down the ol key and pressing a cursor key JtJ gt J lt J on the cursor keypad of your keyboard Alternatively you can press the right button on your mouse and drag the mouse to rotate the camera Or if you have a joystick with a direction controller coolie hat you can use that as well e To jump into the cockpit of your glider press cl Gel always toggles between cockpit and external view of the spacecraft you are controlling e Inthe cockpit you can look around by rotating the camera in the same way as in external views e To look straight ahead press the von button Cockpit modes e At the moment you are in virtual cockpit mode that is you are inside a three dimen sional representation of the glider cockpit with the glass pane of the head up display HUD in front of you and the instruments and controls arranged around you If you look back you can even get a glimpse of your passengers in the cabin behind you e You can switch t
76. ely you can press alc MFD keyboard interfaces always use snit key combinations where the left sht key controls the left MFD and the right shit key controls the right MFD You will see a list of available modes e Click on one of the buttons along the left or right edge to select the corresponding mode If you click the top left button the MFD switches to Orbit mode e Modes can also be selected directly with a snit key combination The key combinations used for selecting a mode a listed in grey below the modes For example lol will select the Orbit mode e Most modes have additional settings and parameters that can be controlled with the but tons as well The button labels change to indicate the various mode functions For exam ple the Orbit mode has a button labelled TGT This can be used to display the orbit of a target object Click this button you will see a dialog box to select a target object Press Enter type iss in the text box and press Enter again This will show the orbital parameters of the International Space Station in the MFD display e To see a short description of the available mode functions click the MNU button at the bottom of the MFD Alternatively use aal Jh e A description of standard MFD modes can be found in Section 13 Orbiter can also be extended with addon MFD modes so you may see additional modes in the list e For now switch the left MFD to Surface mode and the right M
77. en whenever Orbiter is re started Flight Data Monitor a Sample rate Hz 1 Stop Reset Log Alt Lift Drag kN x 1000 Alititude km Pressure kPa x 100 ADA deg x 10 Altitude Airspeed Mach number Freestream temperature Altitude 6 5 L N Lift and Drag Pressure IF station Dynamic Angle of Attack Vertical Horizontal Figure 33 Flight Data dialog ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 79 18 Flight checklists This section contains point by point checklists for some complete flights While flying these checklists you may want to save regularly enjis so you can pick up from a previous state if necessary The checklists can also be acessed during the simulation when running a checklist scenario by calling up help Lat Lech and clicking the Scenario button in the help window Other sce narios may also provide online help 18 1 Mission 1 Delta glider to ISS In this mission we launch the Delta glider into orbit from runway 33 of the Shuttle Landing Fa cility SLF at the Kennedy Space Center and perform a rendezvous and docking manoeuvre with the International Space Station e Start Orbiter with the Checklists DG to ISS scenario Your glider is ready for takeoff from SLF runway 33 at the KSC _ e You may need to scroll the instrument panel down a bit Z cursorpad to see the runway in front of you Make su
78. ently no VC parameters are supported HUD block optional HUD mode and parameters If the HUD block is missing no HUD is displayed at startup BEGIN_HUD lt HUD parameters gt END_HUD lt HUD parameters gt Parameter Type Description TYPE Flag Orbit Surface Docking Left Right MFD blocks optional Left right MFD type and parameters If the block is missing the corresponding MFD is not displayed Note that custom MFD modes may have their own set of parameters BEGIN_MFD Left Right lt MFD parameters gt END_MFD lt MFD parameters gt Parameter Type Description TYPE Flag MFD type Orbit Surface Map Launch Docking OAlign OSynce Transfer REF S Reference object Orbit and Map MFD only TARGET S Target object for Orbit OAlign and OSync MFD only BTARGET S Base target for Map MFD only OTARGET S Orbit target for Map MFD only PROJ Flag Ecliptic Ship Target for Orbit MFD only MODE Flag Intersect 1 Intersect 2 Sh periapsis Sh apoapsis Tg periapsis Tg apoapsis Manual axis for OSync MFD only MANUALREF F Reference axis position deg for OSync MFD in manual mode only LISTLEN Number or orbit time listings for OSync MFD only ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 99 Ship list List of spacecraft The list must at least contain the vessel referred to by the Focus entry BEGIN_SHIPS lt Ship 0 gt lt Ship 1 gt lt Ship n 1 gt ENDESEHEE S Ship entries lt Ship i gt
79. ers to balance gravitational acceleration can be done automatically with Hold altitude nav mode This also means the ship should be kept level with the horizon Navigate with short main thruster bursts At high horizontal velocities the flight path may approach an orbital trajectory In that case hover thrusters must be reduced to maintain altitude In the extreme case of horizontal velocity exceeding the orbital velocity of a circular orbit at zero altitude the ship will gain altitude even for disengaged hover thrusters That means you have entered into an elliptic orbit at periapsis If the planet has an atmosphere When flying through an atmosphere the flight model will be similar to an airplane s in par ticular if your ship essentially is an airplane i e has airfoils that produce a lift vector as a function of airspeed As with an airplane you need to apply continuous thrust to counter at mospheric friction and maintain a constant airspeed If your ship produces lift hover thrusters are not necessary unless airspeed falls below stall speed e g during vertical lift off and landing If your ship does not generate a lift vector hover thrusters must be substituted or the ship must be tilted such that the main thrusters provide a vertical component to counter the gravitational field Note that lift produced by thrusters is independent of airspeed 16 2 Launching into orbit Launching from a planetary surface and entering in
80. et awe Camera track mode Camera distance from target Figure 14 External camera information View Name of the current camera target Mode The camera mode used for tracking the target Dist Distance between camera and target Fuel status 12 3 Engine information display HUD mode Main engine acceleration m s Hover engine Attitude thruster acceleration mis group mode Trim control setting Figure 15 Fuel engine displays The engine information display is only shown in non panel views Fuel status Remaining fuel is displayed as percentage of full tanks Main engine The horizontal bar shows current main retro engine thrust as fraction of max engine thrust Green indicates main thrusters orange indicates retro thrusters The numerical value shows acceleration in units of m s positive for main negative for retro thrust Note that the acceleration may change even if the thrust setting doesn t because the ship s mass changes as fuel is consumed Hover engine If available hover engines are mounted underneath the ship s fuselage to as sist in surface flight in particular during takeoff landing Display analogous to main engine Attitude thruster mode Attitude thrusters are small engines used for rotation and fine translational adjustments The display shows the current mode rotational translational Trim setting Displays the current setting of the trim control if avai
81. et base e Pos Equatorial coordinates longitude latitude of selected spaceport e Dst Surface distance of ship s projected position to the target base e Dir Direction of the target base as seen from the ship Target orbit e Pos Equatorial coordinates longitude latitude of the projected target position e Alt Target altitude Notes e Only objects ships stations or moons orbiting the current reference planet will be accepted as orbit targets e Only bases located on the current reference planet will be accepted as target bases e Your ship s orbital plane will only be plotted if you are orbiting the current reference planet ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 59 13 8 Align orbital plane This MFD mode aids in rotating the orbital plane in space so that it corresponds with some target plane e g the orbital plane of another object The instrument contains the relevant or bital elements inclination and longitude of the ascending node of the current and target or bits It also shows the relative inclination angle between the two planes the angles of the current radius vector towards ascending and descending nodes the time to intercept the next node and the predicted required thruster burn time See section 16 3 on how to use this MFD mode The target plane can be either defined in terms of the orbital plane of another orbiting object or by specifying the parameters that define the orientation of
82. et name and optional docking port index 1 directly This shortcut method may be dropped in a future version Apart from their different operational range the two modes provide are identical in terms of the produced MFD display Key options snit JNJ Select NAV receiver for IDS information input shift VJ Switch to visual data acquisition mode el Direct target and docking port selection MFD control layout Select NAV receiver Shift JNJ APPR DOCK Switch to vis ual acquisition sel VJ SEL MNU MFD display components APPR DOCK transmitter ID NAV f IDS XPDR eege tangential ap closing velocity proach offset target distance tangential velocity distance bar log scale longitudinal rota tion indicator closing speed bar log scale alignment indicator tangential velocity indicator approach path indicator approach cone e IDS source identifies the source of the currently received IDS signal e TOFS tangential offset from approach path This value is given in units of the approach cone radius at the current target distance TOFS lt 1 indicates a position inside the ap proach cone e TVEL Tangential velocity velocity relative to target projected into plane normal to ap proach path m s ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 56 DST Dock to dock distance m The bar shows the distance on a loga
83. found in aircraft The display consists of a gyro compass indicating the current heading at the 12 o clock posi tion The yellow arrow in the centre of the instrument is the course arrow or Omni Bearing Selector OBS When the slaved NAV radio is tuned to a VOR transmitter the OBS can be adjusted with the OB ml bh and OB an Uh keys For ILS transmitters the OBS is automatically fixed to the approach direction The middle section of the course arrow is the Course Deviation Indicator CDI It can deflect to the left and right to show the deviation of the OBS setting from the current bearing to the NAV sender If the CDI is deflected to the left then the selected radial is to the left of the cur rent position In the lower left corner of the instrument is the TO FROM indicator TO means that you are working with a bearing from you fo the ground station FROM indicates a radial from the ground station to you When tuned to an ILS localiser transmitter the instrument shows an additional horizontal glideslope bar for vertical guidance to the runway If the bar is centered in the instrument you are on the correct glide slope If it is in the upper half the glide slope is above you i e you are too low If it is in the lower half the glide slope is below you and you are approaching too high Key options shift NJ Select NAV receiver snitt gl Switch focus to left right HSI instrument el CJ Rotate OBS
84. fuel specific impulse in vacuum 9 4 Dragonfly The Dragonfly is a space tug designed for moving payload in orbit It may be used to bring satellites delivered by the Space Shuttle into higher orbits or to help in the assembly of large orbital structures The Dragonfly has no dedicated main thrusters but a versatile and adjustable reaction control system THE DRAGONFLY IS NOT DESIGNED FOR ATMOSPHERIC DESCENT OR SURFACE LANDING ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 31 Dragonfly original design Martin Schweiger Model improvements and textures Roger Long Systems simulation and instrument panels Radu Poenaru The Dragonfly is the first vessel to be modelled with detailed electrical and environmental systems simulation contributed by Radu Poenaru For detailed information see the Dragonfly Operations Handbook Technical specifications Mass 7 0 10 kg empty 11 0 10 kg 100 fuel Length 14 8m Width 7 2m Height 5 6m Propulsion system RCS mounted in 3 pods left right aft total 16 thrusters Thrust rating 1 0 kN per thruster Isp 4 0 10 m s 9 5 Space Shuttle Atlantis The first real spacecraft to appear in the Orbiter standard distribution Launch configuration consists of Orbiter main tank and 2 solid rocket boosters SRB The latest Orbiter distribu tion contains a new Atlantis model by Don Gallagher and external tank and SRB models by Damir Gulesich Atlantis features a functio
85. gonfly but not for the Delta glider or Space Shuttle The wheel station sends a transponder signal at frequency 132 70 The default IDS transmit ter frequencies for the two docking ports are Port 1 136 00 Port 2 136 20 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 36 Wheel model and textures Martin Schweiger 9 9 Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope is the visible ultraviolet near infrared element of the Great Ob servatories astronomical program The spacecraft provides an order of magnitude better resolution than is capable from ground based telescopes The objectives of the HST are to 1 investigate the composition physical characteristics and dynamics of celestial bodies 2 examine the formation structure and evolution of stars and galaxies 3 study the history and evolution of the universe and 4 provide a long term space based research facility for optical astronomy During initial on orbit checkout of the Hubble s systems a flaw in the tele scope s main reflective mirror was found that prevented perfect focus of the incoming light This flaw was caused by the incorrect adjustment of a testing device used in building the mir ror Fortunately however Hubble was designed for regular on orbit maintenance by Shuttle missions The first servicing mission STS 61 in December 1993 fully corrected the problem by installing a corrective optics package and upgraded instruments as well as replacing
86. gt lt Panel block gt lt VC block gt lt HUD block gt lt Left MFD block gt lt Right MFD block gt lt Ship list gt Description block optional Contains a short description of the scenario BEGIN_DESC lt Description gt END_DESC lt Description gt ASCII text describing the scenario CR is converted to space Empty lines are converted to CR This text is displayed in the description box of the Orbiter launchpad dialog when the user selects the scenario from the list Environment block optional Contains the simulation environment BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT lt Environment parameters gt END_ENVIRONMENT lt Environment parameters gt Parameter Type Description SYSTEM S Name of the planetary system A configuration file for this system must exist Default Sol DATE Contains simulation start time Allowed formats are MJD lt mjd gt lt mjd gt Modified Julian Date JD lt jd gt lt jd gt Julian Date JE lt je gt lt je gt Julian Epoch Default is current simulation time but this should be avoided if the scenario contains objects defined by position velocity vectors which cannot easily be propagated in time Focus block mandatory Contains parameters for the user controlled spacecraft BEGIN_FOCUS lt Focus parameters gt END_FOCUS lt Focus parameters gt Parameter Type Description SHIP S Name of the user controlled ship The ship
87. guration file lt Size gt is the base s overall radius in meters lt osize gt is the size of a typical object building etc This value is used by Orbiter to determine up to what camera distance base objects will be rendered Objects will not be rendered if the apparent size of an object of size lt osize gt located at the centre of the base would be smaller than 1 pixel The default value for lt osize gt is 100 0 lt spmap gt is a boolean default false If true the objects in the object list will be automatically adjusted in elevation to correct for the planets curvature This means that objects with elevation 0 will be mapped onto alti tude 0 of the planet surface If false elevation 0 maps onto the flat horizon plane of the base reference point Note Currently this function is only implemented for a limited number of base object types lt NAV list gt contains a list navigation radio transmitters associated with the base The for mat is identical to that of the Planet config file see section 21 3 lt Object list gt contains a list of objects which make up the visual elements of the base See next section for details ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 92 21 5 Adding objects to surface bases Surface bases are composed of objects buildings train lines hangars launch pads etc The configuration file for each surface base contains a list of its objects BEGIN_OBJECTLIST lt Object 0
88. he Use Folder Names option e After unzipping the package make sure your ORBITER folder contains the executable Orbiter exe and among other files the Config Meshes Scenarios and Textures sub folders e Run Orbiter exe This will bring up the ORBITER Launchpad dialog where you can se lect video options and simulation parameters e You are now ready to start ORBITER Select a scenario from the Launchpad dialog and click the ORBITER button ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger o If Orbiter does not show any scenarios in the Scenario tab or if planets appear plain white without any textures when running the simulation the most likely reason is that the pack ages were not properly unpacked Make sure your Orbiter folder contains the subfolders as described above If necessary you may have to repeat the installation process e ORBITER does not modify the Windows registry or any system resources so no compli cated uninstallation process is required Simply delete the Orbiter folder with all contents and subdirectories This will uninstall ORBITER completely ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 3 The Launchpad Starting Orbiter exe brings up the Orbiter Launchpad dialog box From here you can set simulation video and joystick parameters load available plugin modules to extend the basic Orbiter functionality select a startup scenario open the online help system
89. he VTOL VOR MFD to obtain direction and distance information A map with VOR lo cations is available with on lw Frequencies of VOR transmitters located at a surface base are also available from the base s information sheet Len J1 J VTOL Surface landing pads for vertical take off and landing VTOL may be equipped with short range landing aid transmitters This signal can be fed to the VTOL VOR MFD to obtain landing alignment information A list of available VTOL transmitters can be ob tained from the information sheet of a surface base ol J ILS Many runways are equipped with Instrument Landing Systems ILS to provide heading and glideslope information ILS information is used by the HSI MFD mode ILS frequencies are available from the runway listing in the information sheets of surface bases XPDR Some spacecraft and orbital stations are equipped with transponders for identifi cation and long range homing purposes An XPDR signal can be fed to the Docking MFD to obtain distance and closing speed information It is also recognised by the Docking HUD mode which will display a target rectangle velocity marker and distance informa tion The Docking HUD can be slaved to a NAV receiver with Cow J R XPDR frequencies can be obtained from a vessel s information sheet Col bh IDS Instrument docking system Most space stations and some spacecraft provide short range approach signals for their docking ports typical range 10 km This sign
90. hen the ship reaches the intersection point is marked by a dashed yellow line The objective is to adjust the HTO so that the grey and dashed yellow lines coincide so that ship and target arrive at the intersection point simultaneously Hohmann transfer orbit A transfer orbit which just touches the target orbit i e where ejection and intersection longi tude are 180 apart is called a Hohmann minimum energy transfer orbit because it mini mises the amount of fuel used during the orbit ejection and injection points Transfer orbits with larger major axis require more fuel but are faster than Hohmann orbits Ejection burn Once the HTO has been set up the ejection burn takes place when the ejection point is reached when the solid and dashed green lines coincide The ejection burn is prograde or retrograde given the orbit w r t the current orbit reference As the burn takes place the cur rent orbit solid green line will approach the HTO The burn is terminated when the orbit coin cides with the HTO and Dv has reached zero After ejection the HTO should be turned off so that intercept parameters are displayed for the actual transfer orbit Numerical multibody trajectory calculation The source target and transfer orbits discussed above are analytic 2 body solutions The Transfer MFD however also supports a numerical trajectory calculation to account for the ef fect of multiple gravitational sources The display of the numerical traje
91. hould fall to zero by reducing pitch not by killing the thrusters Pitch may still be gt 0 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 70 because part of the thrust vector is required to counter gravitation until full orbital velocity is reached e As the tangential velocity increases pitch should be reduced to maintain constant alti tude e As soon as the tangential velocity for a circular orbit is reached eccentricity 0 thrusters should be killed 16 3 Changing the orbit To change the shape of the orbit without changing the orbital plane the thrust vector must be applied in the orbital plane The simplest maneuvers involve modifying the apoapsis or peri apsis distances e Increase apoapsis distance Wait until the ship reaches periapsis Apply thrust vector prograde ship orientated along velocity vector engage main thrusters e Decrease apoapsis distance Wait until the ship reaches periapsis Apply thrust vector retrograde ship orientated against velocity vector engage main thrusters e Increase periapsis distance Wait until the ship reaches apoapsis Apply thrust vector prograde e Decrease periapsis distance Wait until the ship reaches apoapsis Apply thrust vector retrograde In Practice Case 1 Assume you want to change from a low circular orbit 200km into a higher circular orbit 1000km e Turn ship prograde and engage main thrusters e Kill thrusters as soon as apoapsis distance reaches 10
92. hpad dialog Parameters tab Realism e Complex flight model Select the realism of the flight model for spacecraft e Limited fuel Un tick this box to ignore fuel consumption of your spacecraft Some of the more realistic spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle may NOT work properly if Limited fuel is not selected because they rely on the reduction of mass during liftoff as a consequence of fuel consumption e Nonspherical gravity sources This option activates a more complex gravity calculation which can take into account perturbations in the gravitational potential due to nonspheri cal object shapes thus allowing more accurate orbit predictions Note that this option can make orbital calculations more difficult and may reduce the stability of instruments that dont take this effect into account For a planet to make use of the perturbation code its configuration file must contain the JCcoeff entry Technical background Orbiter uses the following simple perturbation approach to calculate the gravitational potential U of a celestial body as a function of its radial distance r and latitude d ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 8 2 GM z R U r 6 ISS 4 P sin di r n 2 r where M and R are the planet s mass and equatorial radius G is the gravitational constant P is the Legendre polynomial of order n and J is the associated perturbation coefficient The gravitational ac
93. hrough the reference plane from above e Radius vector The vector from the orbit s focal point to the current position of the orbiting body For further explanation of orbital elements see Appendix C For hyperbolic non periodic orbits the following parameters are interpreted specially SMa real semi axis a distance from coordinate origin defined by intersection of hyperbola asymptotes to periapsis The semi major axis is displayed negative in this case SMi imaginary semi axis b a sqrt e 1 ApD apoapsis distance not applicable T orbital period not applicable PeT time to periapsis passage negative after periapsis passage ApT time to apoapsis passage not applicable MnA mean anomaly defined as e sinh H H with H hyperbolic eccentric anomaly G field contribution The G value at the bottom of the display shows the relative contribution of the current refer ence body to the total gravity field at the ship s position This can be used to estimate the reli ability of the Keplerian 2 body orbit calculation For values close to 1 a 2 body approxima tion is accurate For low values the true orbit will deviate from the analytic calculation result ing in a change of the orbital elements over time As a warning indicator the G display will turn yellow for contributions lt 0 8 and red if the se lected reference object is not the dominant contributor to the gravity field In that case el al will select th
94. ility References 1 Yoder C F 1995 Astrometric and Geodetic Properties of Earth and the Solar System in Global Earth Physics A Handbook of Physical Constants AGU Reference Shelf 1 American Geophysical Union 2 Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac 1992 K P Seidelmann Ed p 706 Table 15 8 University Science Books Mill Valley California B 5 Rotation elements Planet North pole Obliquity of ecliptic Longitude of Sun s transit D Right ascension Declination 8 4 Mercury 280 99 61 44 Tao Ge Sil Mars S17 Gl 52 85 GE 262 78 Jupiter 268 04 64 49 2o Be EE Saturn 40 14 Se d 349 39 Uranus Bisa SE gal GEO Neptune ZOD 40 63 48 ele Pluto sili 50 4 14 LES AE Reference The Astronomical Almanac 1990 North pole coordinates Derived from north pole coordinates MS B 6 Atmospheric parameters Planet Surface pressure Surface density Scale height Avg temp Wind speeds kPa kg m km K m s Mercury Venus 9200 65 Se 9 737 0 3 1 surface Earth 101 4 1 217 288 0 100 Mars 0 61 variable 0 020 T E 210 0 30 Jupiter gt gt 10 0 16 at 1 bar 27 129 up to 150 at lt 165 at 1 bar 30 latitude up to 40 else Saturn gt gt 10 0 19 at 1 bar 5915 97 up to 400 at lt 134 at 1 bar 30 latitude up to 150 else Uranus gt gt 10 0 42 at 1 bar 27 7 58 0 200 76 at 1 bar Neptune gt gt 10 0 45 at 1 bar 19 1 20 3 58 0 200 72 at 1 bar Pluto U
95. ils with particle effects e Ambient light level Defines the brightness of the unlit side of planets and moons Ambi ent level 0 is the most realistic but makes it difficult to spot objects in the dark Level 255 is uniform lighting no darkness 3 4 Modules tab This tab allows to activate and deactivate plugin modules for Orbiter which can extend the functionality of the core simulator Plugins can contain additional instruments dialogs inter faces to external programs etc Make sure you only activate modules you actually want to use because modules can take up some processing time even if they run in the background and thus affect Orbiter s performance The modules provided with the standard Orbiter distribution are demos from the SDK pack age and are available in full source code A wide variety of additional modules by 3 party add on developers can be downloaded from Orbiter repositories on the internet Y Orbiter Launchpad BE Slip Scenario Parameters Visual effects Modules Video Joystick About Active modules Inactive modules DialogT emplate MED Template Deactivate selected Activate selected Deactivate all Activate all ORBITER A E Hep Ext Figure 4 Launchpad dialog Modules tab Some of the standard modules distributed with Orbiter are CustomMFD This module provides an additional Ascent MFD mode for the multifunctional display
96. ine these parameters ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 101 Appendix A MFD quick reference NAV COM ul gl AV Receiver Stack smitter SEL MNU Orbit zum ol Select orbit reference Orbit Earth Frm EQU Prj SHP ES nl Orbit projec tion mode Auto select ell reference Sala Select target Shift j Unselect target Shift ul Display mode em wl Frame of reference SEL T MNU Switch left right HSI Shift E Select NAV receiver Shift JN Rotate OBS left Shift y Rotate OBS right SEL MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 102 voR vTOL sall Select NAV receiver Sr Select NAV receiver Switch to vis ual ac uisition sel VJ SEL MNU Surface Earth ATM DATA TMP hi e wm KE EQU POS SEL T MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 103 Select map reference cout Select target base orbit Sg Toggle track mode on off zl Zoom on off Scroll left Sg Scroll right ER Select target object sol Select custom elements zl Select target object Toggle inter section point zl List length shift wl
97. ing Atlantis RMS x e The shuttle carries a mechanical manipulator arm in the cargo wrist bay which can be used for releasing and recapturing satellites MMU control etc d al S e The arm can be used in orbit once the cargo doors have been fully opened Elbow e To bring up the RMS control dialog press er Space Al e The arm has three joints the shoulder joint can be rotated in el yaw and pitch the elbow joint can be rotated in pitch and the wrist joint can be rotated in pitch yaw and roll Shoulder e To grapple a satellite currently stowed in the cargo bay move cal the RMS tip onto a grappling point and press Grapple If grap el pling was successful the button label switches to Release e To make it easier to identify the grappling points of satellites Bes you can tick the Show grapple points box This marks all grap Stow ps pling points with flashing arrows SH e To release the satellite press Release Page e You can also grapple freely drifting satellites if you move the RMS tip onto a grappling point I Show grapple points e To return a satellite back to Earth it must be stowed in the cargo bay Use the RMS arm to bring the satellite into its correct position in the payload bay When the Payload Arrest button becomes active the satellite can be fixed in the bay by pressing the button It is automatically released from the RMS tip e The RMS arm can
98. itants but makes docking a bit more complicated Docking is only possible along the rotation axis so at most 2 docking ports can be provided The docking procedure is simi lar to the standard one but once aligned with the approach path the rotation around the ship s longitudinal axis must be aligned with that of the station Important e Initiate your ship s longitudinal rotation only immediately before docking when past the last approach marker Once you are rotating linear adjustments become very difficult e Once the rotation is matched with the station don t hit Numpad5 Kill rotation by acci dent or you will have to start the rotation alignment again Cheat Since rotational alignment is not enforced at present you can simply ignore the rotation of the station and fly straight in ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 76 17 Extra functionality Orbiter comes with a default set of plugin modules to enhance the core functionality of the simulator To access these additional functions the appropriate modules must be loaded in the Modules tab of the Orbiter Launchpad dialog Many more plugins are available from 3 party addon developers Check out the Orbiter re positories on the web to find more You should only activate modules you want to use because many plugins may access the CPU even if they are running in the background Too many active modules can degrade simulation performance Some plugins ar
99. ius Cloud parameters only required if planet contains a cloud layer Item Type Description CloudAlt Float Altitude of cloud layer m CloudShadowDepth Float Depth blackness of cloud shadows on the ground 0 1 where 0 black 1 don t render shadows Default 1 CloudRotPeriod Float Rotation period of cloud layer against surface s default 0 static cloud layer CloudMicrotextureAlt Float Altitude range m for cloud microtexturing First value is Float altitude at which full microtexture is applied Second value is altitude at which microtexture starts to kick in First value gt 0 and second value gt first value is required Default no microtexture Visualisation parameters Item Type Description MaxPatchResolution Int Max resolution level for surface texture maps 1 8 MinCloudResolution Int Min resolution at which clouds are rendered as separate layer 1 MaxPatchResolution MaxCloudResolution Int Max cloud resolution level MinCloudResolution 8 MaxDynamicResoluti Int Reserved on Surface marker parameters optional Item Type Description MarkerPath String Directory path containing surface marker lists for the planet Default Config lt planet name gt Marker See also Section 21 6 on how to add surface markers to a planet Surface bases optional This list contains the names and locations of surface landing sites spaceports Each entry in this list must be accompanied by
100. ject longitude s Time to ejection lt Num orbit params delta velocity Al Intercept longitude Num orbit Time to intercept y Intersection HTO indicator Current src pos e _ target at A intersection direction indicator A target orbit Current target pos l Eject indicator Rel inclination lt Figure 18 Transfer MFD mode The Transfer MFD looks similar to the Orbit MFD it displays a source and a target orbit rela tive to a selectable orbit reference The source orbit is usually your ship s current orbit al though sometimes a different source is more appropriate see below The MFD again as ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 63 sumes matching orbital planes of source and target although this condition usually can not be precisely satisfied for interplanetary orbits Source orbit selection The source orbit is the orbit from with to eject into the transfer orbit Usually the source orbit will be the ship s current orbit In certain situations however it is better to use a different source Consider for example an interplanetary transfer from Earth to Mars using the Sun as reference Since the ship s primary gravitational source will be Earth rather than the Sun its orbit w r t the Sun will be strongly distorted by the Earth s field In this case it is better to di rectly use Earth as the source orbit Whenever the source is not identical to the ship a small
101. l reference frame M Ecliptic e Ecliptic grid lines V Target Equator e Ecliptic great circle Constellations e Equator great circle of the target body if applicable si e Constellation lines and labels full and abbreviated I eta e Markers for celestial bodies G Full C Short e Vessel markers e Surface base markers Markers e Markers for VOR radio transmitters e e Surface bases Some marker types will not be visible if the object is out of range VOR transmitters or from a planet surface during daylight M Celestial Config MV Surface Config Figure 34 shows some of the grids and markers available in the simulation Planets may define their own sets of surface markers to locate items such as natural landmarks points of interest historic landing sites navigational aids etc Likewise the planetary system may define sets of markers to identify bright stars navigation stars nebulae etc You can select marker sets by clicking the Config button This opens a further dialog box where you can highlight the appropriate sets from a list box Additional lists may be available as addons from Orbiter internet repositories If you want to modify the provided marker sets or create your own see Section 21 6 Orbiter now stores the current planetarium settings in its configuration file and remembers them in the next simulation run Hardcore space simmers may spurn the planetarium as a cheat mode but for the rest of
102. l target onto the planet surface are plotted NAWE The map display can show either the full planet surface in global view 360 x 180 or a smaller 180 x 90 area in 2x zoom mode In Track mode the vessel s current position remains centered in the display In this case the scrolling function is disabled Key options Shift R Open input box for reference planet moon selection Open a menu for target selection s Ele Shift K Switch automatic vessel track mode on or off Toggle between global map view and 2x zoom Scroll map display left not in track mode HHN snitt 1 Scroll map display right not in track mode ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 58 al Scroll map display up not in track mode or global view al Scroll map display down not in track mode or global view MFD control layout Select map reference Map Earth smj Scroll u SJ Select target Scroll down base orbit srt Toggle track mode on off Sa Zoom on off Snitt RB Scroll left Eag Scroll right SEL MNU coal 1 Parameters for selected target base Ship position Parameters for selected target orbit Target orbital plane Target base Orbit target Ship s orbital plane Targ
103. labels Default is 1 Size A size factor for the markers Default is 1 0 DistanceFactor Defines up to what distance the markers are displayed Default is 1 0 Frame used for celestial markers only defines the reference frame to which the coordi nates in the list refer ecliptic data are ecliptic longitude and latitude celestial data are right ascension and declination of J2000 equator and equinox default Each item in the header section is optional If missing the default value is substituted The header can also be omitted altogether in which case the BEGIN_DATA flag is also not re quired In the data section each line defines a label It consists of equatorial position longitude in degrees with eastern longitudes positive and western longitudes negative latitude in de grees with northern latitudes positive and southern latitudes negative and one or two label strings to be displayed above and below the marker 21 7 Scenario files Scenarios contain all parameters required to set up the simulation at a particular time They are used for loading and saving simulation states Scenario files are usually generated auto matically when saving a simulation The format description below is primarily intended for de velopers of scenario editor add ons OO P Go CH ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 97 Format lt Description block gt lt Environment block gt lt Focus block gt lt Camera block
104. lable Trimming allows to adjust the flight characteristics during atmospheric flight For more information about engines and spacecraft control see Section 14 12 4 Surface mode Indicated by SRFCE in the upper left corner ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 46 This mode displays a pitch ladder which indicates the ship s orientation w r t the current plane of the horizon The plane of the horizon is defined by its normal vector from the planet centre to the spacecraft The compass ribbon at the top of the screen indicates the ship s forward direction w r t geo metric north A marker shows the direction of the current target Spaceport The box left below the compass ribbon shows the current altitude m The box right below the compass ribbon shows the current airspeed m s even if there is no atmosphere The surface relative velocity vector direction is marked by o 12 5 Orbit mode Indicated by ORBIT Ref in the upper left corner where Refis the name of the reference ob ject This mode displays a pitch ladder relative to the current orbital plane where the 0 line indi cates the orbital plane It also marks the direction of the orbital velocity vector prograde di rection by and retrograde direction by If neither the prograde nor retrograde direction is visible then the direction of the marker is indicated by a pointer labeled PG prograde The refe
105. launch the Orbiter simulation window or exit to the desktop From the Launchpad dialog the simulation can be started by pressing the ORBITER button provided a scenario has been selected If you are running Orbiter for the first time you should make sure that the simulation parameters in particular video options are properly set before starting the simulation 3 1 Scenario tab J Orbiter Launchpad am zs Scenario Parameters Visual effects Modules Video Joystick About Scenario __ Options eatin I Start paused ran ISS Project Alpha g Atmospheric flight Animated control surfaces Ki Atlantis final approach ki Deltaglider runway takeoff Fi An ae Kal nent H Take the Delta oder for a spin around Kennedy Space Center to test the new atmospheric flight model and exhaust particle system Save current Clear quicksaves dl 34 ORBITER Space Flight Simulator Hel S Figure 1 Launchpad dialog Scenario tab Scenario Contains a hierarchical list of available scenarios Select one and launch it with the Orbiter button Below the list is a description of the currently selected scenario Special scenarios and folders e The Current state scenario is automatically generated whenever you exit the simulator Use this to continue from the latest exit state e The Quicksave folder contains in game saved scenarios generated by pressing e J
106. le the periapsis distance ap proaches the apoapsis distance ApD Once the eccentricity value reaches a minimum turn the main engines off You can also deactivate the prograde attitude mode by clicking Prograde again Congratulations You made it into orbit ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 17 Deorbiting Should you ever want to come back to Earth you need to deorbit This means to drop the periapsis point to an altitude where the orbit intersects the dense part of the atmosphere so that your vessel is slowed down by atmospheric friction Deorbit burns are performed retrograde Click the Retrograde button wait until the ves sel attitude has stabilised and engage main engines Keep burning until the periapsis point is well below Earth s surface then cut the engines Strictly speaking the deorbit burn must be timed precisely because too shallow a reentry angle will cause you to skid off the atmosphere while too steep an angle will turn you into a shooting star For now we are not concerned with such fine detail Turn prograde again and wait for your altitude to drop As you enter the lower part of the atmosphere friction will cause your velocity to decrease rapidly Reentries are usually performed with a high angle of attack AOA about 40 for the Space Shuttle Once your aerodynamic control surfaces become responsive again you can turn off the RCS system Your glider has now turned back into an
107. lect the external camera tracking or ground based mode Shortcut ch Change the camera field of view FOV Shortcut Z and zb Store and recall camera modes via the preset list Y Orbiter Camera Ke Track Ground zl Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars fe Phobos Deimos Jupiter Saturn Uranus Focus Cockpit Focus Extern Figure 8 Camera dialog target selection list 11 1 Internal view In internal cockpit view the player is placed inside the cockpit of his her spaceship and looks forward Instrument panels head up display HUD and multifunctional displays MFD are only shown in internal view To return to cockpit view from any external views press cl or select Focus Cockpit from the camera dialog Some spacecraft types support scrollable 2D instrument panels and or a 3 dimensional virtual cockpit in addition to the generic view Press Fs to switch between the available cockpit modes You can rotate the view direction by pressing the cursor keys lr on the cursor keypad To return to the default view direction press on the cursor keypad Virtual cockpit e 2D panels can be scrolled with en lU This is useful if the panel is larger than the simulation window or to scroll the panel out of the way If a ship supports multiple panels you can switch between them with a TUE For details on HUD and MFD modes see sections 1
108. left sne Rotate OBS right MFD control layout Switch left right HSI Shift ri Select NAV receiver snitt NJ db Ga W ALA AN Canaveral Rotate OBS left eai shi Rotate OBS right sall SEL MNU ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 54 MFD display components Right HSI indicator NAV receiver frequency and identifier Gyro compass Localiser Sall Hilfe Glideslope To use the HSI for surface navigation e Determine the frequency of the VOR station you want to use e g from the Map cn J M or spaceport info dialog c J1 J and tune one of your NAV receivers to that frequency on the COM NAV MFD sel ch e Slave one of the HSI displays to that receiver with sell e To fly directly towards the station turn the OBS indicator until the CDI aligns with the ar row and the TO FROM indicator shows TO e Turn the spacecraft until the OBS indicator points to the 12 o clock position e If the CDI wanders off to the left or right turn the spacecraft in that direction until the ar row is aligned again e To fly away from the station use the same procedure but make sure that the TO FROM indicator shows FROM To use the HSI for instrument landing e Make sure the runway is equipped with ILS use the spaceport info dialog ol bh and tune one of your NAV receivers to the ap
109. light Default 1 0 COL FFF Beacon colour RGB Valid range 0 1 for each value Default 1 1 1 white V Vector F Float l Integer SOLARPLANT A grid of ground mounted solar panels smart enough to align themselves with the Sun The following parameters are supported Parameter Type Description POS V Centre position of the panel grid Default 0 0 0 SCALE F Scaling factor for each panel Default 1 SPACING FF Distance between panels in x and z direction Default 40 40 GRID Il Grid dimensions in x and z direction Default 2 2 ROT F Rotation of plant around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX S F F Texture name and u v scaling factors for panels Default none V Vector F Float l Integer S String TRAIN1 A monorail type train on a straight track The following parameters are supported Parameter Type _ Description END1 V First end point of track END2 V Second end point of track MAXSPEED F Maximum speed of train m s Default 30 SLOWZONE F Distance over which train slows down at end of track m Default 100 TEX S Texture name V Vector F Float S String TRAIN2 Suspension train on a straight track The following parameters are supported Parameter Type Description END1 V First end point of track END2 V Second end point of track HEIGHT F Height of suspension track over ground m Default 11 MAXSPEED F Maximum speed of train m s Default 30 SLOWZONE F Distance over which train slows down at end of t
110. mes of reference ecliptic or equatorial The plane of the ecliptic is defined by the Earth s orbital plane and is useful for interplanetary flights The equatorial plane is defined by the equator of the current reference object and is useful for low orbital and surface to orbit operations Use alt to switch be tween the two frames of reference The current mode is displayed in the top line of the display Frm The plane into which the graphical orbit displays are projected can be selected via ale The current projection plane is indicated in the top right corner of the instrument Prj ECL or EQU project into the plane of the ecliptic or equator respectively SHP projects into the ves sel s current orbital plane and TGT projects into the target s current orbital plane if a target is specified nl opens a menu to specify a target object Only targets which orbit around the current reference object will be accepted The target display can be turned off with snit N Key options Auto select reference object Toggle frame of reference ecliptic equator of reference object Toggle display mode list only graphics only and both i DEEE Shift No target orbit Snitt Toggle orbit projection mode reference frame ship s and target s orbital plane snitJ RJ Select new reference object planet or moon for orbit calculation snitJ T Open menu for target sel
111. must be listed in the ship list see below Camera block optional Camera mode and parameters If the camera block is missing the camera is set to cockpit view in the current focus object BEGIN_CAMERA lt Camera parameters gt END_CAMERA lt Camera parameters gt Parameter Type Description MODE Flag Extern Or Cockpit TARGET S Camera view target external modes only cockpit mode ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 98 always refers to current focus object POS V Camera position relative to target external modes only TRACKMODE Flag TargetRelative AbsoluteDirection GlobalFrame String TargetTo lt ref gt TargetFrom lt ref gt Ground lt ref gt external modes only GROUNDLOC FFF longitude deg latitude deg and altitude m of ground ATION observer Ground trackmode only GROUNDDIR FF polar coordinates of ground observer orientation free ECTION Ground trackmode only FOV F Field of view degrees Panel block optional 2D instrument panel parameters If neither this nor the VC virtual cockpit block is present Orbiter initially displays generic cockpit views BEGIN_PANEL lt Panel parameters gt END_PANEL Currently no panel parameters are supported VC block optional Virtual cockpit parameters If neither this nor the panel block is present Orbiter initially displays generic cockpit views BEGIN_VC lt VC parameters gt END_VC Curr
112. n time and speed frame rate and camera aperture displayed in the top right corner of the simulation window This display can be turned on and off with 1 Universal date and aa Modified Julian Date days Simulation time pg eg Frame rate Time acceleration factor Field of view camera aperture e dimension W x H x bpp Figure 13 General simulation information UT Universal time counted from 0 at midnight Unit is mean solar day ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 45 MJD The Julian Date JD is the interval of time in mean solar days elapsed since 4713 BC January 1 at Greenwich mean noon The Modified Julian Date MJD is the Julian Date minus 240 0000 5 Sim Simulated time in seconds elapsed since the start of the simulation Wrp Time acceleration factor This field is not displayed for acceleration factor 1 real time FoV vertical field of view i e viewport camera aperture FPS current frame rate frames per second Dim viewport dimension width and height in pixels colour depth in bits per pixel The display of frame rate and viewport dimension can be turned on and off with the E key 12 2 Camera target mode display This data block is displayed in external camera modes only in the top left corner of the simulation window It contains information about the camera target and track mode This display can be turned on and off with DI Camera targ
113. n to the Russian MIR station which in Orbiter s virtual reality is still happily in Earth orbit Note that in Orbiter MIR is placed in an ecliptic orbit to make it a platform for interplanetary missions This means that ISS and MIR have a very high relative inclination which makes the transfer very expen sive in terms of fuel expenditure Start Orbiter with the Checklists ISS to MIR scenario Your glider is docked to the ISS Press DI to jump into the glider s cockpit Select target MIR in Orbit MFD Press Right shit TJ Ente MIR ISS and MIR orbits have a high relative inclination To prepare for orbit change select the Align plane MFD Lett ml al Lett al 7 MIR Undock from the ISS ol oh Once you are clear of the dock close the nose cone kl Switch to Orbit HUD mode Co The first burn will take place at the DN descending node point Use time compression to fast forward there but switch back to real time when the time to node Tn value in the Align plane MFD is down to 500 Prepare attitude for the burn click the Orbit normal button Your glider will now orient itself perpendicular to the orbital plane When the Engage engines indicator in the Align MFD begins to flash engage full main engines The relative orbit inclination RInc should start to drop Terminate the burn when the Kill thrust indicator appears and the inclination reaches its minimum This is a very long burn about
114. nal arm with grappling capabilities and MMU support contributed by Robert Conley See Atlantis_ MMU_Sat manual for details Launch e Fire main engines at 100 e SRBs are ignited automatically when main engines reach 95 SRBs are not controlled manually Once ignited they cannot be shut off e During launch attitude is controlled via SRB thrust vectoring Roll shuttle for required heading and decrease pitch during ascent for required orbit insertion e SRBs separate automatically at T 2 06min In an emergency SRBs can be jettisoned manually with CJ e Ascent continues with Orbiter main engines Throttle down as required for 3g max accel eration e Tank separates at T 8 58min alt 110km when empty or manually with JJ e After tank separation orbiter switches to OMS orbital maneuvering system using inter nal tanks for final orbit insertion Attitude thrusters RCS reaction control system are activated ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 32 3D model and textures Don Gallagher orbiter and Damir Gulesich ET SRB Original module code Martin Schweiger Original grappling RMS and MMU extensions Robert Conley Module code extensions David Hopkins Docking e The orbiter carries a docking attachment in the cargo bay e Open cargo bay doors before docking e Docking direction is in orbiter s y direction up The Docking MED must be interpreted accordingly RMS manipulation and grappl
115. nd tab Then move the camera to the new spot using en JJC J j and zl zl The coordinates are displayed in the dialog and can be directly copied into the configuration file Navbeacon transmitter list optional This list contains all navigation radio transmitter specs except those directly associated with a spaceport see section 21 4 The list format is as follows BEGIN_NAVBEACON lt NAV list gt END_NAVBEACON List entries have the following format lt type gt lt id gt lt Ing gt lt lat gt lt freq gt lt range gt where lt type gt transmitter type currently supported VOR lt id gt identifer code up to 4 letters lt lng gt lt lat gt transmitter position equatorial coordinates deg lt freq gt transmitter frequency kHz lt range gt transmitter range m default 500 km To implement a custom DLL module for planet position velocity calculations see SDK docu mentation To add a new planet to a planetary system the following steps are required 1 Add an entry for the planet in the planetary system configuration file see previous sec tion Planet lt X gt lt Planetname gt 2 Create a configuration file lt Planetname gt cfg for the new planet in the Config subdirec tory with entries as listed above ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 91 3 Create the required surface texture maps up to the specified resolution see Section 0 4 Optionally cre
116. ne of the following orbit intersection 1 and 2 if applicable ship and target apoapsis and periapsis and manual The manual axis can be rotated with shej and sj e True anomaly of ref axis RAnm The direction of the reference axis w r t the ship s periapsis direction e Longitude difference DLng The angle between ship and target as seen from the cen tral body e Distance Dist Distance between ship and target m e Rel velocity RVel Relative velocity between ship and target m s e Time of arrival difference DTmin This is the minimum time difference s between the ship s and target s arrival at the reference point for any of the listed orbits see below e Rel orbit inclination Rinc Inclination between ship s and target s orbital planes e Time on reference lists Sh ToR and Tg ToR A list of time intervals for the ship and target to reach the selected reference point The number of orbits can be selected with all The closest matched pair of timings is indicated in yellow The DTmin value re fers to this pair For usage of this MFD mode in orbit synchronisation see Section 16 5 13 10 Transfer The Transfer MFD mode is used for calculating transfer orbits between planets or moons or more generally between any objects with significantly different orbits for which the Sync orbit MFD is not sufficient Note that Orbiter now contains Duncan Sharpe s TransX MFD mode as a plugin module which su
117. nts V Vector F Float l Integer S String RUNWAYLIGHTS Complete lighting for a single runway including optional Precision Approach Path Indicator PAPI and Visual Approach Slope Indicator VASI see section 16 6 Runway markers are turned off during daytime but PAPI and VASI indicators are always active Parameter Type Description END1 V First end point of runway center line END2 V Second end point of runway center line WIDTH F Runway width m COUNT1 Number of lights along the runway center line 22 Default 40 ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 94 PAPI FFF Precision Approach Path Indicator PAPI Default no PAPI Parameters 1 Designated approach angle deg 2 Approach cone aperture deg 3 Offset of PAPI location from runway endpoints m VASI FFF Visual Approach Slope Indicator VASI Default no VASI Parameters 1 Designated approach angle deg 2 Distance between white and red indicator lights m 3 Offset of VASI red bar location from runway endpoints m V Vector F Float l Integer BEACONARRAY A linear array of illuminated beacons usable e g for taxiway night lighting Parameter Type Description END1 V First end point of beacon array in local coordinates of the surface base Note that the y coordinate is the elevation above ground END2 V Second end point of beacon array COUNT l Number of beacons in the array 22 Default 10 SIZE F Size radius of each beacon
118. nway threshold Above glide slope On glide slope Below glide slope Figure 27 VASI indicator signals PAPI Threshold VASI Pan eel Figure 28 SLF Shuttle approach path 16 7 Docking Docking to an orbital station is the last step in the rendezvous manouevre Assuming you have intercepted the target station following the preceding steps here we discuss the final docking approach o e Turn on the Docking MFD al oh and the Docking HUD by pressing ol until docking mode is selected ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 74 Tune one of your NAV receivers to the station s XPDR frequency if available The fre quency is listed in the station s information sheet Col bh Slave the Docking MED and Docking HUD to that NAV receiver Lan vl and ct JR re spectively If not done already synchronise relative velocity by turning the ship until it is aligned with the relative velocity marker and fire main thrusters until velocity value V approaches zero Rotate the ship to face the station 4 marker At a range of approx 10 km tune a NAV receiver to the IDS Instrument Docking System frequency of the designated docking port if available Slave Docking MFD and Docking HUD to that receiver if applicable This will display orientation and direction information in the MFD and a visual representation of the approach path in the HUD rectangles Move towards the approach path
119. o a different cockpit mode by pressing ml Dressing ial ones will open the generic cockpit mode with only the HUD and two instruments Pressing Fs again will open a 2 D panel mode e The panel can be scrolled by pressing a cursor key Yas on the cursor keypad To scroll the panel out of the way press t You should now be able to see the runway stretching in front of you Scrolling the panel is useful if you want to see more of your sur roundings Also if the panel is larger than your simulation window you can scoll different parts of the panel into view e Some spacecraft have more than a single panel which can be accessed by pressing oul in combination with a cursor key If you press ol 7 you will see the gliders overhead panel with some additional controls Pressing ol Ul twice will bring up the lower panel with brake and gear controls For now switch back to the main panel with ol e Not all spacecraft types support 2 D panels or 3 D virtual cockpits but the generic cockpit mode is always available ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 14 MFD instruments The most important and versatile instruments are the two multifunctional displays MFDs in the centre of the instrument panel Each MFD consists of a square CRT screen and buttons along the left right and bottom edges e MFDs can be set to different modes With the mouse left click the Sel button at the bottom edge of one of the MFDs Alternativ
120. o that the ship s orbital velocity is added to the planetary velocity This is the case when the source gt ship direction indicator is pointing away from the Sun e Immediately before the ejection burn switch the source orbit to your ship so that Dv can be estimated 13 11 Ascent profile custom MFD mode This MFD mode is only available if the Custom MFD plugin is activated in the Modules sec tion of the Launchpad dialog The Ascent profile mode can be selected with snit cl sn rl The ascent profile records a number of spacecraft parameters and displays them in graphs on the MFD The following are recorded e Altitude as a function of time e Pitch angle as a function of altitude e Radial velocity as a function of altitude e Tangential velocity as a function of altitude cent profile Ascent profile Figure 19 Ascent profile MFD mode pages 1 and 2 Key options ale Switch display page snit a Set altitude range ml sl Set radial velocity range ml Set tangential velocity range Parameters are sampled at 5 second intervals A total of 200 samples are stored and cycled By default axis ranges are adjusted automatically but manual range setting is possible ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 65 Circular orbit insertion In the tangential velocity graph Vtan a grey line indicates the orbital velocity for a circular orbit as a function of altitude If the ves
121. of siderial star day Ts ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 39 e obliquity of ecliptic Ob tilt of axis of Eggs E x rotation against plane of ecliptic onea e Atmospheric parameters if applicable Esela e atmospheric pressure at zero altitude fn PenstoidofSun p0 Physical parameters h M E MOSIA Iako pe edu e i i i 3389 92km mean radius atmosp eric density at zero altitude r0 Be frem Moln e specific gas constant R Ob 26 72 obliquity of ecliptic e ratio of specific heats c c 9 Hne e orbital elements in the ecliptic frame of reft VB Sen EE erence relative to currently orbited body R een LE e d SN e g g ratio of specific heats semi major axis eccentricity inclination Orbital elements ecliptic frame ef longitude of ascending node longitude of Zo periapsis mean longitude ele ara e ipti iti i i Inc 1 850 inclination current ecliptic position in polar coordinates Wares lee e eee longitude latitude and radius relative to LPe 335 969 longitude of periapsis Mn 225 087 mean longitude currently orbited body ri e e geocentric celestial position right ascension and declination ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 40 11 Camera modes To open a camera configuration dialog press en Jiri This allows to e Select the camera target in external views Jump back to the current focus object in external or cockpit view Shortcut ch Se
122. oint at 2 urface which the orbit 2 Map MFD passes through 2 HSI MFD the reference plane from above Green elements refer to your own orbit yelow elements to the orbit of the target object andthe grey circle The help system is currently still under development Not all scenarios and vessels currently support context sensitive help The system can be extended by adding additional scenario and vessel help pages and addon developers are encouraged to use the help system to pro vide user friendly information about their spacecraft or provide documented tutorial scenarios that illustrate the features of their plugins ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 19 NEW 6 Keyboard interface This section describes the default Orbiter keyboard functions Please note that the key assignments are customizable by editing the keymap dat file in the orbiter directory and that therefore the keyboard controls for your Orbiter installation may be different The key assignment reference in this section and the rest of the manual refers to the key board layout shown in Figure 7 For other layouts e g language specific the key labels may be different The relevant criterion for key functions in Orbiter is the position of the key on the keyboard not the key label For example on the German keyboard the keys for the turn or bit normal and turn orbit antinormal 7 will be 6 and A Keys
123. olour depth BPP for fullscreen modes JoystickIndex Int Enumeration index for current joystick 0 none do not edit manually JoystickThrottle Int Saturation zone for joystick throttle control 0 10000 A Saturation setting of 9000 means that the throttle will saturate over the last 10 of its range at either end Default 9500 JoystickDeadzone Deadzone at joystick axis centres 0 10000 A setting of 2000 means the joystick is considered neutral within 20 from the central position Default 2500 AmbientLevel Int Ambient light level brightness of not directly lit surfaces Valid range is 0 15 NumStar Int Number of background stars lt 15984 Default 3000 StarBrightness Float Brightness scaling factor for background stars 0 2 2 Default 1 0 ConstellationCol RGB Colour for constellation lines Default 0 3 0 3 0 3 UnlimitedFuel Bool Ignore spacecraft fuel consumption Default FALSE FlightModel Int Flight model realism level currently supported 0 and 1 MFDTransparent Bool Make onscreen multifunctional displays transparent Default TRUE ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 87 EnableShadows Bool Enable disable object shadows on planet surfaces EnableSunGlare Bool Enable sun glare effects EnableClouds Bool Enable rendering of planetary cloud layers EnableCloud Bool Enable rendering of cloud shadows on the ground also Shadows requires CloudShadowDepth lt 1 in individual planet config files
124. om Scroll map display left not in track mode Shift Scroll map display right not in track mode HEEE D I Shift Scroll map display up not in track mode or global view ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 23 Shift T Scroll map display down not in track mode or global view Transfer Mode MFD Open input box for reference planet moon selection Open a menu for source orbit object selection Open a menu for target selection Unselect target Toggle hypothetical transfer orbit display on off Toggle numerical multibody trajectory calculation Refresh numerical trajectory if displayed WE EE Gilels Open input box for time step definition EI Rotate transfer orbit ejection longitude LJ Ge Decrease increase transfer orbit major axis Synchronise orbit Mode MFD Shift E Input new target object vessel or moon shitt MJ Change reference axis Shift nj Select number of entries in the reference transit time list aal Jl Rotate reference axis in manual mode only 6 5 Menu selections Move to previous item in the list Move to next item in the list Display sub list for selected item if available HW ee Go back to the parent list from a sub list lz oO
125. onitor this 16 5 Synchronising orbits This section assumes that the orbital planes of ship and target have been aligned see previ ous section The next step in a rendezvous manoeuvre after aligning the orbital planes is to modify the or bit in the plane such that it intercepts the target s orbit and both ship and target arrive simulta neously at the interception point Use the Synchronise Orbit Shift Y MFD to calculate the appropriate orbit For simplicity we first assume that the ship and target are in a circular orbit with the same or bital radius for synchronising the orbital radius see Section 16 3 i e both objects have the same orbital elements except for the mean anomaly The method for intercepting the target is then as follows e Switch the reference mode of the Synchronise Orbit MFD to Manual and rotate the axis to your current position e Turn your ship prograde using Orbit HUD mode and fire main thrusters e The orbit will become elliptic with increasing apoapsis distance Periapsis is your current position Simultaneously the orbit period and the times to reference axis will increase e Kill thrusters as soon as one of the Sh ToR times coincides with one of the Tg ToR times e Then you just have to wait until you intercept the target at the reference axis e At interception fire thrusters retrograde to get back to the circular orbit and match velocity with the target ship orbit Sh ToR 0 Ts Tg
126. or slope range indicator artificial horizon scram engine status Virtual cockpit landing gear control status nose cone control status mae The delta glider supports a 3 D virtual cockpit VC mode in addition to the 2 D panel mode Switch between cockpit modes by pressing Fs The VC puts you in the pilot s seat with the head up display in front of you and all controls and displays within easy reach You can op erate switches and levers with the mouse Look around you by pressing the right mouse but surroundings HUD HUD mode panel left MFD hover f b balance airfoil control scramjet gimbal RCS control main gimbal scramjet temperature navmode panel indicator lights right MFD HUD color brightness airlock control nosecone trim angular vel mom fuel level AOA controls fuel status horizon slope slip ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 28 RCS and aerodynamic control selection The AF CTRL selector is used to activate control of aerodynamic surfaces via manual user input Manipulating the control surfaces is only effective within an atmosphere at suffi ciently high dynamic pressures The settings are OFF control
127. orbit All that remains to do is raise the periapsis the lowest point of the orbit to a stable altitude This is done best when you reach apoapsis which should be half an orbit or about 45 minutes from your current position Time to switch into an external camera mode and enjoy the view It is also a good idea to switch the HUD from surface to orbit mode now Do this by click ing the OBT button in the top left corner of the instrument panel or by pressing HJ twice In this mode the HUD flight path ladder is aligned with the orbital plane instead of the horizon plane and there is a ribbon showing your orbital azimuth angle It also shows indicators for prograde the direction of your orbital velocity vector and retrograde the opposite direction When you approach apoapsis turn your craft prograde You can see how close you are to the apoapsis point by checking the ApT time to apoapsis value in the Orbit MFD If it takes too long press to engage time acceleration and to switch back To turn prograde you can activate the RCS manually but it is easier to leave it to the automatic attitude control by simply pressing the Prograde button on the right of the instrument panel or Uh Now fire your main engines for final orbit insertion The two parameters to watch are the orbit eccentricity Ecc and periapsis distance PeD The eccentricity value should get smaller indicating that the orbit becomes more circular whi
128. pace Shuttle The Shuttle Landing Fa ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 73 cility SLF at the Kennedy Space Center provides an good opportunity for exercising landing approaches Visual approach indicators The visual approach aids at the SLF are designed for Shuttle landings They include a Preci sion Approach Path Indicator PAPI for long range glide slope alignment and a Visual Ap proach Slope Indicator VASI for short range alignment The PAPI is set up for a glide slope of 20 about 6 times as steep as standard aircraft approach slopes The VASI is set up for a 1 5 slope during the final flare up prior to touchdown Precision Approach Path Indicator The PAPI consists of an array of 4 lights which appear white or red to the pilot depending on his position above or below the glide slope At the correct slope there will be 2 white and 2 red lights see figure In Orbiter there are 2 PAPI units per approach direction at the SLF located about 2000 meters in front of the runway threshold Above glide slope Slightly above glide slope On glide slope Slightly below glide slope ID Below glide slope Figure 26 PAPI indicator signals Visual Approach Slope Indicator The VASI consists of a red bar of lights and a set of white lights in front of them At the cor rect slope the white lights are aligned with the red bar see figure At the SLF the VASI is located about 670 meters behind the ru
129. pad Enable disable reaction control system RCS The RCS if available is a set of small thrusters which allows attitude rotation and linear control of the spacecraft kK Numpad Enable disable manual user control via keyboard or joystick of aerodynamic control surfaces elevator rudder ailerons if available Bl Toggle Hold altitude navcomp mode Maintain current altitude above surface by means of hover thrusters only This will fail if hover thrusters cannot compensate for gravitation in particular at high bank angles Combining this mode with the H level mode is therefore useful T Toggle H level navcomp mode This mode keeps the spacecraft level with the horizon by engaging appropriate attitude thrusters Toggle Turn prograde navcomp mode This mode turns the spacecraft into its orbital velocity vector E Toggle Turn retrograde navcomp mode This mode turns the spacecraft into its negative orbital velocity vector L Toggle Turn orbit normal navcomp mode Rotates spacecraft normal to its orbital plane in the direction of RxV E Toggle Turn orbit antinormal navcomp mode Rotates spacecraft antinormal to its orbital plane in the direction of RxV S Delete f Cursorpad Trim control only vessels with aerodynamic surfaces Apply left wheel brake where applicable olele Apply right wh
130. persedes and extends most of the Transfer MFD mode TransX is described in a separate document TransXmanualv3 Key options al sl Open input box for reference planet moon selection al sl Open a menu for source orbit object selection ml Open a menu for target selection ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 62 Unselect target Toggle HTO hypothetical transfer orbit display on off Toggle numerical multibody trajectory calculation Refresh numerical trajectory if displayed lel le Open input box for time step definition ool LJ Rotate transfer orbit ejection longitude Eel Decrease increase transfer orbit major axis MFD control layout Select refer ence object Shift fR Update trajector Shift uj Transfer ber E Select source Leupp orbit Shi s et Shift T Unselect target Shift H Toggle hypo orbit Shift x Numerical trajector Shift M MFD display components Time steps Rotate ejection Shift LJ Rotate ejection B CD D O E Di gt D E O v B SEL MNU S shift Transfer reference Target orbit Current source params current orbit true longitude longitude longitude at HTO params intercept E
131. plane tary ephemeris to a Keplerian orbit where each element is allowed to vary linearly with time This solution fits the terrestrial planet orbits to 25 or better but achieves only 600 for Sat urn Elements are referenced to mean ecliptic and equinox of J2000 at the J2000 epoch 2451545 0 JD Reference Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac 1992 K P Seidelmann Ed p 316 Table 5 8 1 University Science Books Mill Valley California B 4 Planets Selected physical parameters Planet Mean radius km Mass DO kal Density g cm Siderial rotation Siderial orbit period h period yr Mercur 2440 1 3 301880 5427 1407 509 0 2408445 Jupiter EE T8986 MA1 EE 9 92425 lee Saturn EE 5684 6272 0 6873 10 65622 29 423519 Uranus GE 868 32054 ils SANS Uno AG sel oO 83 747407 Neptune 24624 21 1024 569 1 638 MOT EE OOA 163472221 Pluto SI omis is il 153528 248 0208 Planet V 1 0 mag Geometric albedo Equatorial gravity m s Escape velocity km s Jupiter Seu OROZ ER EE Saturn 8 88 0 47 8 96 SEN Se an 0 Uranus fhe UY HESS GaaS HESE EE Neptune SE 0 41 11 00 1005 2220 Pluto Sls ES 0 655 thes ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 107 All values from reference 1 except Pluto data from 2 Mercury to Neptune masses derived from GM data in 1 thanks to Duncan Sharpe for pointing this out Orbiter now uses 23 93447h 23h 56m 4 09s which appears to give better long term sta b
132. propriate frequency e Slave one of the HSI displays to that receiver e As soon as the ILS transmitter is in range the OBS indicator will turn into the approach direction and can be used as a localiser indicator At the same time the glideslope indi cator will become active When both indicators are centered to form a crosshair you are on course and on glideslope to the runway The Docking MFD assists during final approach to dock with another vessel or orbital station The layout is similar to the Landing MFD Docking approach data can be acquired in three different modes e IDS mode data are acquired from a radio signal sent by the docking target The IDS In strument Docking System signal is obtained by tuning a NAV receiver to the appropriate frequency and slaving the Docking MFD to that receiver The typical range for IDS is 100km To select a NAV receiver press snit JN The selected frequency is displayed in the upper right corner of the MFD e Visual mode Docking parameters are acquired from onboard visual systems typically video cameras mounted in the docking port The visual system aids in docking to targets which don t provide IDS The typical range for visual mode is 100m To switch to visual mode press shit v ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 55 e Direct target selection If you want to avoid the need to tune into a navigation transmitter signal you can open target dialog am TJ and enter targ
133. rack m Default ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 95 100 TEX S Texture name V Vector F Float S String LPAD1 An octagonal bordered landing pad Default diameter 80m at scale 1 Landing pads are numbered in the order they appear in the list Can be assigned numbers 1 9 For expected layout of texture map see e g Textures Lpad01 dds Parameter ype Description T POS V Pad centre coordinates in local coordinates of the surface base SCALE F Scaling factor Default 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX S Texture name Default none NAV F frequency kHz of VTOL nav transmitter valid range 85 0 140 0 default none V Vector F Float S String LPAD2 A square landing pad Default size 80m at scale 1 Landing pads are numbered in the order they appear in the list Can be assigned numbers 1 99 For expected layout of texture map see e g Textures Lpad02 dds Parameter ype Description T POS V Pad centre coordinates in local coordinates of the surface base SCALE F Scaling factor Default 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX S Texture name Default none F NAV frequency kHz of VTOL nav transmitter valid range 85 0 140 0 default none V Vector F Float S String MESH Generic mesh for custom object types Mesh files must be in ORBITER mesh file format see 3DModel pdf in the Orbiter SDK package Parameter Type Descrip
134. raft Scenarios simulation startup definitions are located in a subdirectory defined by the Sce narioDir entry in the master file usually Scenarios They have file extension scn 21 1 Master configuration file The master configuration file Orbiter cfg is located in the Orbiter main directory It contains general settings for graphics modes subdirectory locations simulation parameters etc Note that manual editing of Orbiter cfg should no longer be necessary because most parameters can be accessed from the Launchpad dialog Item Type Description ConfigDir String _ Subdirectory for configuration files default Config MeshDir String _ Subdirectory for mesh files default Meshes TextureDir String _ Subdirectory for textures default Textures HightexDir String Subdirectory for alternative high resolution planetary textures default Textures2 ScenarioDir String _ Subdirectory for scenarios default Scenarios Devicelndex Int Enumeration index for current 3D device do not edit manually DeviceForceEnum Bool If TRUE enumerate 3D devices at each start Modelndex Int Screen mode index do not edit manually Fullscreen Bool TRUE for fullscreen mode FALSE for windowed mode Stereo Bool Currently not used WindowWidth Int Horizontal window size for windowed modes WindowHeight Int Vertical window size for windowed modes The ratio WindowWidth WindowHeight should be approximately 4 3 RGBDepth Int Screen c
135. re you can still see the top half of the panel with the MFD screens e Your launch is scheduled at MJD 51983 6308 the Modified Julian Date or MJD is Or biter s universal time reference and is shown in the top right corner of the screen This leaves plenty of time to get used to the instrumentation If you are not yet familiar with the glider s panel layout check section 9 1 For details on MFD modes see section 13 The left MFD screen is in Surface mode and shows velocity and altitude data The right MFD screen is in Map mode and shows your current location KSC as a white cross The orbital plane of the ISS is shown as a yellow curve As time progresses the curve will shift across the map as the Earth rotates under the station s orbital plane e To fast forward to your launch window press Gy Each time you press time acceler ates by a factor of 10 As you approach launch time switch back to real time by pressing RI until the Wrp indicator in the top right corner of the screen disappears e Engage main engines eI numpa to 100 thrust You may also use the sliders on the instrument panels or the throttle control on your joystick to operate the main engines e At ground speed 100 m s surface MFD or HUD readout pull the stick or press A Numpad to rotate Climb at 10 and retract the landing gear el Turn right towards heading 140 Pitch up steeply to 70 At about 30km altitude your glider will start to d
136. rectangle furthest away from the station and hold Align the ship s heading with the flight path direction using the X indicator in the MFD Align the ship s position on the approach path using the indicator in the MFD Switch attitude thrusters to linear mode for this Align the ship s rotation along its longitudinal axis using the arrow indicator in the MFD Approach the station by engaging main thrusters briefly During approach correct your position continuously using linear attitude thrusters Slow down approach speed to less than 0 1m s before intercepting the dock You need to approach the dock to less than 0 3 m for a successful docking manoeuvre To disengage from the docking port press ol ol Gr N SC yz X Y Figure 29 A Shuttle A class cargo ship after successfully completed docking approach to the ISS Notes For precise attitude control with the keyboard use the attitude thrusters in low power mode Ctrl Numpad key You can only dock to a port you have been cleared for Rotational alignment is not currently enforced but may be in future versions Currently no collision tests are performed so you might fly straight through the station if you miss the docking approach ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 75 Docking at rotating stations Stations like Luna OB1 rotate to use centrifugal forces for emulating gravity which is nice for their inhab
137. rence object for the HUD can be manually selected by pressing e lgl 12 6 Docking mode Indicated by DOCK Tg in the upper left corner where Tgtis the name of the target station This mode marks the current docking target orbital station with a square marker and dis plays its name and distance It also shows the direction and magnitude of the target relative velocity vector The velocity of the target relative to the ship is indicated by o This is the di rection in which you need to accelerate to synchronise your speed with the target The oppo site direction the velocity of the ship relative to the target is indicated by If neither nor are visible then the direction of the marker is indicated by a pointer Similarly if the target marker is offscreen its direction is indicated by a pointer The target station for the HUD can be manually selected by pressing e lgl ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 47 13 Multifunctional display modes Two multifunctional displays MFD can be displayed simultaneously on the screen MFDs provide essential information about all spacecraft flight parameters A range of different MFD modes is available to assist in various navigational problems such as launch landing surface flight orbit determination etc MFDs are controlled by Shift key combinations where the left Shift key controls the left MFD the right Shift key controls the right MFD MFD modes can be s
138. rithmic scale in the range 0 1 10 m CVEL Closing speed m s The bar shows the closing speed on a logarithmic scale in the range 0 1 10 m s Yellow indicates positive closing speed The circular instrument shows the ship s alignment with respect to the approach path towards the allocated dock Approach path indicator The green cross indicates the position of the approach path relative to the ship When centered the ship is aligned on the approach path The radial scale is logarithmic in the range 0 1 10 m Tangential alignment should be performed with attitude thrusters in linear mode see Section 14 2 Tangential velocity indicator The yellow arrow indicates the relative tangential velocity of your vessel with respect to the target The radial scale is logarithmic in the range 0 01 10 m s The numerical value is the tangential velocity m s To align your ship with the approach path engage linear attitude thrusters so that the arrow points towards the ap proach path indicator Alignment indicator The white red cross indicates the alignment of the ship s forward direction with the approach path direction When centered the ship s forward direction is parallel to the approach path The cross turns red if misalignment is gt 2 5 The radial scale is linear in the range 0 20 Rotational alignment should be performed with attitude thrusters in rotational mode see Section 14 2 Longitudinal rotation indicator This ar
139. ro and maximum throttle respectively Reduce if main engines do not cut out completely at minimum throttle setting Applies only to joy sticks with throttle control If further calibration is required you should use the appropriate tools in the Windows Control Panel ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 13 This section demonstrates how to take off and land with one of Orbiter s default spacecraft the Delta glider If you are using Orbiter for the first time this will help to familiarise yourself with some basic concepts of spacecraft and camera control You should also read the rest of this manual in particular sections 5 and 7 on keyboard and joystick interface section 13 on instrumentation section 14 on spacecraft controls and section 16 on basic flight manoeuvres Make sure you have configured Orbiter before launching your first simulation in particular the video and joystick parameters see section 3 Once you have started the scenario you can CT following scenario instructions also on screen by opening the Help window with Alt BI Starting e Select the Checklists Quickstart scenario see Section 3 1 on scenario selection and press the Launch ORBITER button to launch the scenario Once the mission has been loaded this can take a few moments you will see in front of you runway 33 of the SLF Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center Cape Canaveral Florida e You are in control of a D
140. rop its nose due to decreasing atmos pheric pressure even while you are pulling back on the stick Now activate the RCS Re action Control System by right clicking the RCS Mode selector on the left side of the instrument panel or by pressing EA You are now controlling your craft with at titude thrusters e Pitch down to about 20 After leaving the dense part of the atmosphere you need to gain tangential velocity to achieve orbit Your flight path indicator the symbol on the HUD should stay above 0 e Switch the right MFD to Orbit mode aan oh Select the ship s orbit as reference plane snit P and select ISS as target snit JT ISS e Continue at 100 thrust Maintain your heading and adjust pitch angle so that the flight path vector remains slightly above 0 You will see how your orbit trajectory green curve in the Orbit MFD grows e Cut thrusters when your apoapsis distance highest point of the orbit reaches 6 731M the ApD entry in the left column of the Orbit MFD This corresponds to an altitude of 360 km e To enter a circular orbit you need to perform a further burn at apoapsis The apoapsis point should be on the opposite point of your orbit and will take about 45 minutes to reach so you probably want to time accelerate Check the ApT entry in the Orbit MFD this shows the remaining time to reach apoapsis At apoapsis press the Prograde button to turn prograde Onc
141. rotation axis and normal of reference plane at epoch rad LAN Float Longitude of projection of rotation axis onto reference plane rad Atmospheric parameters only required if planet has atmosphere ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 89 Item Type Description AtmPressure0 Float Mean atmospheric pressure at zero altitude Pa AtmDensityO Float Mean atmospheric density at zero altitude kg m AtmGasConstant Float specific gas constant J K kg Default 286 91 Earth value AtmGamma Float ratio of specific heats c c Default 1 4 Earth value AtmColor0 Vec3 RGB triplet for atmospheric colour at ground level 0 1 each AtmAltLimit Float altitude limit beyond which atmospheric effects can be ignored m AtmHazeExtent Float Width parameter for extent of horizon haze rendering Range 0 thinnest to 1 widest Default 0 1 AtmHazeShift Float Shifts the reference altitude of the haze base line Can be used to adjust haze altitude to a cloud layer in units of planet radius Default 0 align with surface horizon Shift is not applied if camera is below cloud layer AtmHazeDensity Float Modifies the density at which the horizon density is rendered basic density is calculated from atmospheric density Default 1 0 AtmHazeColor Vec RGB triplet for horizon haze colour 0 1 each Default use AtmColor0 values AtmHorizonAlt Float altitude scale for horizon haze rendering m Default 0 01 of planet rad
142. row indicates the ship s longitudinal alignment with the docking port To align the indicator must be moved into 12 o clock position by rotating the ship around its longitudinal axis by engaging bank attitude thrusters in rota tional mode see Section 14 2 When alignment is achieved the indicator turns white misalignment lt 2 5 Note that this indicator is only displayed when directional alignment see above is within 5 Approach cone The concentric red or green circle indicates the size of the approach cone at the current dock distance The ship should approach the dock so that the ap proach path indicator is always inside the approach cone indicated by a green circle The approach cone becomes smaller as the ship approaches the dock Closing speed should be reduced as the ship approaches the dock using retro thrusters The final speed should be lt 0 1 m s Notes To dock successfully you must approach the dock to within 0 3 m Additional restrictions may be implemented in the future speed alignment etc No collision checks are currently performed If you fail to dock and keep closing in you may fly your ship through the target vessel The Surface MFD mode assists in flight close to planetary surfaces It contains the following elements Artificial horizon with pitch and bank readouts Heading indicator ribbon Altitude indicator with markers for pherihel and aphel altitude Vertical speed Vertical accelera
143. rsect 1 or Intersect 2 snit MJ If the orbits don t intersect select Sh periapsis instead e The two columns on the right of the MFD screen show the times it will take you Sh ToR and your target Tg ToR to pass the reference position at your current orbit Ob 0 and the 4 subsequent orbits Ob 1 4 e Turn the ship prograde align with velocity marker of the orbit HUD This can be done by engaging the Prograde auto navigation mode UJ e Fire main engines until Sh ToR 0 matches Tg ToR 1 You will now intercept the ISS at your next passage of the reference point You may want to engage time acceleration now until you reach the reference point e Tune your NAV receivers to the station s navaid radio transmitters Select Comm MFD mode Lal ch and tune NAV1 to 131 30 kHz ISS XPDR frequency and NAV2 to 137 40 kHz Dock 1 IDS frequency e Switch to Docking HUD mode Hl ph and to Docking MED snit oh e Make sure both HUD and Docking MFD are slaved to NAV1 use _ct J RJ to cycle through the NAV receivers for the HUD and san vl for the MFD e Rotate the ship to align with the HUD relative velocity marker and fire main engines until relative velocity is close to zero e Rotate the ship towards the ISS O target designator box and move to within 5km of the station You may want to use attitude thrusters in linear translatorial mode for this Switch between linear and rotational mode with the lue
144. rusters at 100 while pressed overrides permanent setting DI Numpad Fire retro thrusters at 100 while pressed overrides permanent setting Hover thruster controls where available Increase hover thruster setting Lol a Decrease hover thruster setting Numpad Attitude thruster controls rotational mode gon Engage attitude thrusters for rotation around longitudinal axis bank eon Engage attitude thrusters for rotation around transversal axis pitch Cl Rotational mode Engage attitude thrusters for rotation around vertical axis yaw sl Numpad Toggle Kill rotation navigation computer mode Stops spacecraft rotation by engaging appropriate attitude thrusters Note In combination with oul thrusters are engaged at 10 max thrust for fine control Attitude thruster controls linear mode eo Engage attitude thrusters for up down translation Aal Engage attitude thrusters for left right translation EV Summed Engage attitude thrusters for forward back translation Note In combination with ol thrusters are engaged at 10 max thrust for fine control Other controls EI Numpad Toggle reaction control thruster mode between rotational engage ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 21 opposite thruster pairs and linear engage parallel thruster pairs B E Num
145. s Multiple quicksaves are possible Orbiter saves the quicksave states under the original scenario name followed by a quicksave counter The counter is reset each time the simulation is launched so make sure to copy any scenarios you want to keep ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 7 wel NEW Hz The Demo folder can be filled with scenarios that are automatically run in kiosk demo mode see Section 20 This allows to put together a set of simulations that can be run in unsupervised environments Options tee e Start paused Pause simulation on start Press con JP to unpause after launch Save current Save the current exit state under a new name with a custom description Clear quicksaves Empty the Quicksave folder 3 2 Parameters tab J Orbiter Launchpad E 215 x Scenario Parameters Visual effects Modules Video Joystick About Realism MV Complex flight model IV Limited fuel V Nonspherical gravity sources IV Focus follows mouse m Window focus mode Stars Count f DO Brightness f 50 Contrast f D Orbit stabilisation IV Enable stabilisation G field perturbation 10 limit 1 Orbit step limit 2 Jom m Instruments IV Transparent MED MFD refresh sec 11 00 1 00 Panel scroll speed E Panel scale 0 1 71 7 1 an eo Space Flight Simulator Help Exit 2003 Martin S Figure 2 Launc
146. s which can be selected via ale Rcontrol Remote control of ship engines This allows to manipulate vessels even if they don t have input focus If this module is active the remote control window can be selected from the Custom Functions list ct J F4J FlightData Real time atmospheric flight data telemetry If this module is active the flight data window can be selected from the Custom Functions list Len Usch ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 11 NEW Framerate A graphical simulation frame rate FPS display If this module is active the frame rate window can be selected from the Custom Functions list Ler lech 3 5 Video tab J Orbiter Launchpad E sell zs Scenario Parameters Visual gend Modules Video Joystick About 3D Device Direct3D T amp L HAL D MV Always enumerate devices I Try stencil buffer Full Screen Window Screen resolution Width Height 1024 x 768 DI fi 152 1864 Colour depth bpp i Force as ed fis D lV Disable vertical sync Space Flight imulator www_orbitersim com Figure 5 Launchpad dialog Video tab 3D Device Lists the available hardware and software devices for 3D rendering Select a hardware device when possible such as Direct83D HAL or Direct3D T amp L HAL Software de vices such as RGB Emulation will produce poor performance Note that some hardware de vices do not support window mode Always enumerate
147. s key e Slave HUD and Docking MFD to NAV2 If you are within 10 km of the ISS you will receive the signal of the IDS system for dock 1 providing alignment information in the MFD and a visual representation series of rectangles of the approach path on the HUD e Move towards the rectangle furthest away from the station and hold e Align your ship s longitudinal axis with the approach path direction align X indicator in the MFD using attitude thrusters in rotational mode e Align your ship s rotation around its longitudinal axis align indicator at 12 o clock posi tion in the MFD e Center your ship on the approach path align indicator in the MFD using linear atti tude thrusters e Expose the docking mechanism under the nose cone by pressing kj e Start moving towards the dock with a short burst of the main engines Closing speed CVel should be gradually reduced as you approach the dock Final speed should be lt 0 1 m s Re align ship on the approach path with linear attitude thrusters as required e The docking mechanism should engage once you are within 0 3 m of the designated dock A Dock indicator will appear in the MFD once your ship has successfully docked e Finished ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 81 Mission 1 completed successfully 18 2 Mission 2 ISS to MIR transfer This mission performs an orbital transfer from the International Space Statio
148. s of the orbital elements aligning the plane of the orbit with a target plane means to match the two elements which define the orientation of the orbit in space inclination and longitude of the ascending node Q The principal technique to rotate the OP is to point the spacecraft normal perpendicular to the current orbital plane and to fire the engines This will start to rotate the OP around an axis defined by your current radius vector Therefore in order to align the orbit with a given target plane e Wait until you reach the intersection node of your orbit with the target plane e Rotate the ship to point normal to the current orbit e Fire the engines until the OP aligns with the target plane Note e If the angle between the initial and target OP is large it may be necessary to adjust the orientation of the spacecraft during the maneuver to keep it normal to the OP e t may not be possible to align the plane in a single node crossing If the angle towards the target plane cannot be reduced further by accelerating normal to the current orbit cut the engines and wait for the next node crossing e Since the maneuver will take a finite amount of time AT thrusters should be engaged ap proximately 2 AT before intercepting the node acceleration vector current orbit target plane acceleration vector Figure 24 Alignment of the orbital plane rs radius vector vs velocity vector AN ascending node DN Descending node n
149. sel s tangential velocity crosses this line for a given al titude while simultaneously the radial velocity crosses zero circular orbit is achieved ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 66 14 Spacecraft controls This chapter contains guidelines on how to control your spacecraft in free space outside the influence of aerodynamic forces due to an atmosphere We are considering a generic ves sel Note that the handling of different spacecraft types may vary considerably Always read the operating instructions of individual vessels if available 14 1 Main retro and hover engines Main thrusters accelerate the ship forward retro thrusters accelerate it backward Main and retro engines can be adjusted with ott I Numpad to increase main thrust or decrease retro thrust and Len JE Numpad to decrease main thrust or increase retro thrust Main and retro thrusters can be killed with Len Numpad The permanent setting can be temporarily overrid den with Elei set main thrusters to 100 and eer set retro thrusters to 100 If available a joystick throttle control can be used to set main thrusters The ship s acceleration a resulting from engaging main or retro thrusters depends on the force F produced by the engine and the ship s mass m F ma Note that both a and F are vectors that is they have a direction as well as a magnitude In the absence of additional forces such as gravitation or atmospheric drag the
150. so Section 21 6 on how to add celestial markers to a planetary system Object list The object list defines the celestial bodies populating the planetary system and their hierarchy Star entries Star lt i gt Name where lt i gt is an index running from 1 upward note planetary systems with more than one central star are not currently supported Planet entries Planet lt i gt Name where lt i gt is an index running from 1 upward Moon entries lt Planet gt Moon lt i gt Name where lt Planet gt is the name of a planet defined before and lt i gt is an index enumerating the moons of this planet running from 1 upward Example Stari Sun Planet Mercury Planet2 Venus ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 88 Planet3 Earth Earth Moon1 Moon Planet4 Mars Mare Moon Phobos Mars Moon2 Deimos Planet configuration files define the planet s orbital physical and visual parameters For an example see Config Earth cfg General parameters Item Type Description Name String Planet name Module String Name of dynamic link library performing calculations for the planet default none ErrorLimit Float Max rel error for position velocity calculations only used if the module supports precision adjustment EllipticOrbit Bool If TRUE use analytic 2 body solution for planet position velocity calculation otherwise update dynamically ignored if module supports position velocity cal
151. spacecraft will move with constant velocity v as long as no engines are engaged When engines are en gaged the ship s velocity will change according to dv t Coe BO ah or HE v t faat dt A Note that for a fixed thruster setting F the acceleration will slowly increase as fuel is consumed resulting in a reduction of the ship s mass m Hover engines if available are mounted underneath the ship s fuselage to provide upward thrust Hover thrust is increased with Lof Numpad and decreased with Cel Warped Hover thrust ers are useful to compensate for gravitational forces without the need to tilt the ship upward to obtain an upward acceleration component from the main thrusters The current main retro thruster setting and corresponding acceleration is displayed in the up per left corner of the generic HUD Main The indicator bar is green for positive main thrust and yellow for negative retro thrust The hover thrust setting is also displayed if applicable Hovr The numerical acceleration value is in units of m s Spacecraft with customised instrument panels usually have their own indicators for thrust levels Spacecraft equipped with airfoils moving within a planetary atmosphere usually do not require hover thrusters except for launch and landing because they produce an upward force lift when moving with sufficient airspeed like a normal aircraft Lift is speed dependent and will collapse below a threshold sp
152. ssible in the launchpad dialog to prevent users from modifying simulation configuration features such as screen resolution or plugin modules Orbiter should therefore be configured as required before launching into demo mode To use the auto launch feature in demo mode a folder Demo must be created in the main scenario folder usually Scenarios Orbiter will randomly pick a scenario from the Demo folder to launch Note When using Orbiter in kiosk mode it is recommended to run the simulation in a window or to use a fullscreen mode which matches the native PC screen resolution to avoid exces sive switching between video display modes ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 86 21 ORBITER configuration Configuration files allow the customisation of various aspects of ORBITER Configuration files have file extension cfg The format is item value A semicolon starts a comment continuing to the end of line All configuration files except for the master file see below are located in a subdirectory de fined by the ConfigDir entry in the master file usually Config To find out how to set up the configuration file of a spacecraft class see the separate 3DMode documentation contained in the Orbitersdk doc folder you need to install the SDK package to get this document This document also contains information on the mesh file for mat for the vessel s 3D model and other hints on how to create your own spacec
153. til hover engines are fully engaged e Your glider should now lift off vertically Once clear of the ground engage main engines Note that a fully loaded and tanked glider may be too heavy to lift off vertically from Earth when the realistic flight model is used e As you gain airspeed you can gradually reduce hover thrust Atmospheric flight In the lower atmosphere the glider behaves very much like an aircraft Try the joystick con trols for pitch roll and yaw to get a feeling for handling at different altitudes Without a joy stick you can use the numerical keypad 2 8 yumpaa for pitch 4 L6 numpaa for roll and CVE Iwumad for yaw The glider has powerful rocket engines but their performance depends on atmospheric pressure at very low altitudes it will not even go supersonic This is a good time to try different camera modes Open the Camera dialog oeh and check the effect of different track modes and field of view FOV settings Landing e Go around and approach runway 33 of the SLF from the south Line up with the runway Your HSI instrument helps to maintain the correct approach path and slope One of its two displays should already be tuned to the runway ILS system The HSI contains a course pointer deviation and glideslope indicator It works like a standard aircraft instru ment so you may already be familiar with its use If not check section 13 4 for details e As you approach the runway you will see PAPI
154. tion FILE S Mesh file name without path and extension Mesh files must be located in the mesh subdirectory see master config file POS V Position of mesh origin in local coordinates of the surface base SCALE V Scaling factors in x and z and height in y Default 1 1 1 ROT F Rotation around vertical axis degrees Default 0 TEX S Texture name Default none SHADOW Render the shadow cast on the ground by the object UNDERSHADOWS Object can be covered by shadows cast on the ground by other objects e g roads landing pads etc Default object not covered by ground shadows OWNMATERIAL Use materials and textures defined in the mesh file This overrides the TEX entry LPAD Object is a landing pad PRELOAD Mesh should be loaded at program start This can reduce disk activity during the simulation but increases main memory usage Default Load only when used V Vector F Float S String Notes e If the mesh only uses a single texture it is more efficient to specify it via the TEX entry than via the mesh using OWNMATERIAL because Orbiter can merge objects with the same TEX entries for improved performance ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 96 21 6 Adding custom markers You can define lists of labels to mark objects on the celestial sphere e g bright stars naviga tion stars nebulae etc or planetary surface markers to locate natural landmarks points of interest historic landing sites naviga
155. tion Airspeed Acceleration Angle of attack Atmospheric data Equatiorial position longitude and latitude and rate of change The following atmospheric data are displayed if applicable ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 57 TMP Absolute atmospheric freestream temperature K M Mach number M v a with airspeed v and speed of sound a DNS Atmospheric density p kg m STP Static pressure Pa DNP Dynamic pressure q p v Pa MFD display components reference object vertical acceleration indicator SEA Allee me 0 1 40 WEEN E gie Beigighfl aphelion E vertical SE e marker artificial E SE es horizon indicator cae m s UUUTZ ee MEE eee perihelion Ooo 4 BE marker 0100 00010 M acceleration indicator ATM DATA m s TMP STP atmospheric data pitch indicator o a bank indicator oo7oo 001 IN em gEQU POS m s rod equatorial 00500 position and angle of rate attack deg 13 7 Map The Map MFD mode shows a surface map of a planet or moon in an equatorial projection Planets for which a map is not available only show the longitude and latitude grid Surface bases are indicated by red squares The position of the currently selected base and the distance to it are displayed In addition the projections of the orbital planes of the ship and the selected orbita
156. tional aids etc The user can display these markers during the simulation using Fol and Cow lel All celestial and planetary surface markers are placed in their own subdirectories which de fault to Config lt name gt Marker where lt name gt is the name of the planetary system for celestial markers or planet for surface markers they are referring to You can specify a different location with the MarkerPath option in the planet s or planetary system s configura tion file see Section 21 3 Marker files must have extension mkr Multiple files can be de fined for a single planet or planetary system which the user can turn on or off individually Marker files are in ASCII text format BEGIN_HEADER InitialState on off SinayoSiteke os Gl Collowmietck IO oo 4 Size Osl so 2 Disgtan eeracror ile 5 aea Frame celestial ecliptic END_HEADER BEGIN_DATA lt Ing gt lt lat gt lt labeb lt label lt Ing gt lt lat gt lt labeb amp lt label The header section contains some configuration options e InitialState defines if the labels are initially visible when the user activates surface mark ers under en Leal The user can turn lists on and off individually during the simulation The default is off e Shapeldx an integer between 0 and 6 defining the shape of the labels box default circle diamond delta nabla cross X Colourldx an integer between 0 and 4 defining the colour of the
157. to a low orbit is one of the most basic problems of space flight During the early part of the launch the ship needs to apply vertical thrust to overcome the gravitational field and acquire altitude As the ship approaches the de sired altitude the pitch is reduced to increase the horizontal acceleration component in order to reach orbital velocity A stable orbit is achieved as soon as the periapsis distance is suffi ciently high above the planetary surface so that atmospheric friction can be neglected Orbits should usually be prograde i e rotate in the same direction as the planet surface to exploit the initial velocity vector provided by the planet That is on Earth ships should be launched eastwards This also means that launch sites near the equator are most efficient since they provide the largest initial velocity In Practice This assumes the ship is initially placed on the Earth s surface e Set HUD to surface mode Bring up Surface Shift S and Orbit Shift O MFD modes e Engage hover thrusters to at least 10m s e Once free of the surface turn towards east 90 on HUD compass ribbon e Raise nose to 70 pitch while at the same time engaging full main thrusters e As air speed increases bring hover thrusters slowly back to zero e As you gain altitude slowly reduce pitch e g 60 at 20km 50 at 50km 40 at 80km etc e As the desired altitude is reached e g 200km the vertical velocity and acceleration s
158. tro thrust Model design Roger Long Instrument panels and module code Martin Schweiger The new Shuttle A comes with instrument panels For operational details and technical speci fications see the separate Shuttle A Technical Manual Main and overhead instrument panels Turn the ap on and off with Fs The Shuttle A supports two panels which can be selected D and oul with o Fuel tank pump status indicator Airlock lock cover control main engines hover engines thrust indicators RCS mode Navmode selector selectors indicators left MFD right MFD aux engines aux pod tilt controls ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 30 Vessel specific key controls Operate docking hatch mechanism Open close outer airlock door 9 3 Shuttle PB PTV The PB is a very agile single seater It produces little lift in atmospheric flight and depends on its hover thrusters for takeoff and landing Aerodynamic control surfaces are not supported in this version Attitude control is performed via the RCS reaction control system Overall design and textures Balazs Patyi Model improvements Martin Schweiger Technical specifications Mass 500 kg empty orbiter 750 kg fuel capacity 1250 kg total Length 7m Thrust 3 0 10 N main 2x 0 75 10 N_ hover Is 5 010 m s__
159. up slow down the simulation and to pause resume 2 Open vessel dialog to switch control to a different spacecraft oul Switch control back to the previously active vessel This allows to quickly ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 20 switch backwards and forwards between two vessels J Main menu Fa E Open the Custom functions dialog Contains a list of functions defined in plugin modules if available el E Open the Object Info dialog for object specific data such as ILS navaid frequencies etc Open the Map dialog Spaceports navaid locations etc Z LE Open the Navaid Info dialog containing a list of navigational radio beacons 2 Open the Planetarium options dialog for controlling the display of grids and markers Planetarium mode Toggle display of constellations 6 2 Spacecraft controls These keys allow manual maneuvering of the user controlled spacecraft See also joystick controls Note some spacecraft may not define all thruster types Main retro thruster controls Ctrl ID Numpad Accelerate by increasing main thruster setting or by decreasing retro thruster setting Ct CJ Numpad Ile Decelerate by decreasing main thruster setting or by increasing retro thruster setting Numpad Kill main and retro thrusters It Numpad Fire main th
160. uster settings Each entry is of the form lt id gt lt level gt where lt id gt is the thruster identifier in the order of thruster creation and lt level gt is the thruster level 0 1 Thrusters with level 0 can be omitted DOCKINFO List Docking status list This contains information about all docked vessels Each entry is of the form lt id gt lt rid gt lt rvessel gt where lt id gt is the docking port identifier lt rid gt is the docking port identifier of the docked vessel and lt rvessel gt is the name of the docked vessel Only occupied docking ports are listed See notes below Note that individual vessel types may define additional parameter entries Docking vessels There are two ways to define vessels as being assembled into a superstructure by docking them together ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 100 Place the vessels so that their docking ports coincide by using appropriate RPOS RVEL AROT and VROT parameters for both Orbiter will dock two vessels automatically if their docking ports are close enough Define the DOCKINFO lists for both vessels so that they reference each other Orbiter will then attach the vessels accordingly Important The RPOS RVEL AROT and VROT pa rameters of the first vessel in the list which belongs to the superstructure are used to ini talise the state vectors of the superstructure All subsequent vessels docked to the same superstructure do not need to def
161. ys transparent This provides a better view of the 3D environment but makes it more difficult to read the instruments e MFD refresh Time in seconds between MFD updates Shorter intervals provide smoother updates but may degrade performance ORBITER User Manual c 2000 2005 Martin Schweiger 9 e Panel scale Sizing factor for instrument panels Scale 1 provides optimal visual quality but other values may be used to adapt the panel size at low or high screen resolutions e Panel scroll speed Determines how fast the panel can be scrolled across the screen pixels second Negative values invert the panel scroll direction 3 3 Visual effects tab This section provides options for tuning the rendering parameters These options will improve the visual appearance and realism of the simulator but most of them have an adverse effect on simulation performance frame rates when enabled and may increase video and main memory demands so they should be used with care As a first step in troubleshooting Orbiter problems it is often a good idea to turn off all visual effects Li Orbiter Launchpad EE wil ox Scenario Parameters Visual effects Modules Video Joystick About m Planetary effects M Cloud layers M Cloud shadows IV Horizon haze IV Specular reflections from water surfaces IV Planet night lights Night light level 0 1 0 50 r General effects IV Vessel shadows IV Reentry flames M Object sha

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