Space Shuttle Simulator

[arobie]

Space Shuttle Simulator<br /><br />It is very fun and true to the real thing...well atleast to my knowledge,which is very little, of the shuttle. The only flaw I've noticed is that your orbit doesn't change when you change your velocity. Even though that's a major flaw, I think very very few people would be able to dock if it wasn't there. The game is alread hard enough.<br /><br />I'm sorry if this is not the type of thing that would go here, but over in freespace this would get burried under all the political threads. Anyways, anyone who would care would be over here.<br /><br />Well, Enjoy. I did.

 

[arobie]

Oh yeah, I wanted to ask how close this is to the real thing. I know it will be way easier than the real thing, but are there any major flaws or anything mistaken you notice other than the one I've alread noticed?

 

[najab]

Conservation of inertia. If I start a roll, the vehicle should keep rolling until I cancel it out.<p>If you want a <b>much</b> better simulation, try Orbiter.</p>

 

[arobie]

Wow. Looking through the website and gallery, Orbiter looks awesome. As soon as we get our home computer working, I will download it and try it out. Thanks najaB.

 

[jcdenton]

Be forewarned though, the learning curve of this simulator is up the wazoo!<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[najab]

Yeah, I second that. Don't expect to fly any of the launches manually in the realistic launch vehicles and get them right until you've had a <b>lot</b> of practice. I've only managed to get the Shuttle into a circular orbit with (just about) the right parameters once in all my attempts.

 

[arobie]

Yeah, looking at the screenshots and reading about it I figured it would require alot of knowledge that I have yet to learn. I have started to read JPL's Space Flight Learners' Workbook like recommended though. <br /><br />I don't expect to be able to fly it right any time soon though.

 

[arobie]

I've been reading the JPl's Space Flight Learner's Workbook so that I have a better chance on flying and looking like I could possibly almost maby just might (possibly) know what I'm doing. I'm on chapter 9 so far.<br /><br />I've already downloaded the game, and......I suck. I did make it into space, although I messed up and ended up HUNDREDS of AU away from Earth!!! That's when I learned that there is a time warp button, and an option for unlimited fuel. I had both of those on somehow. <br /><br />I may be really bad so far, but it is very fun. I enjoy crashing and stuff. I did manage to land the shuttle Atlantis though. Flying...well gliding in the atmosphere is easy though. Thank you for telling me about this simulator.

 

[arobie]

<font color="yellow">HUNDREDS of AU away from Earth!!!</font><br /><br />That just shows my ignorance of what I'm doing. I had misread the distance. I was within the range of the distance just under AU. I'm not even sure what that is

 

[najab]

AU = Astronomical Unit. That's the mean distance from the Earth to the sun or about 93 million miles. Hundreds of AU would have put you way past the orbit of Pluto.

 

[arobie]

Yea I know, that's why I was very surprised at my distance until I figured that I had misread. That was the first mission I flew. I had accidentally turned on time warp.<br /><br />On orbiter, when you launch the shuttle, or any ship, the altitude starts in feet, then as you get higher,"K" for kilometers, then "M". What does the "M" stand for?? And then after "M" of course is AU. <br /><br />I've never gotten past AU. My record for furthest distance from Earth is about 33 AU. I only go really far distances when I mess up, and just let it fly with Time Warp on while thinking about what I messed up on.

 

[arobie]

OK, I would like to do this right, but I need to know how. I want to launch the shuttle into orbit correctly.<br /><br />When the shuttle launches here on Earth on a mission to the ISS, what maneuvers does it go though to get to orbit? At what point does it start to rotate? How far does it rotate? When does it start to level out from vertical to level with Earth? <br /><br />Sorry for so many questions. They are to anyone who knows.

 

[najab]

I've been trying to find an exact flight profile, but it's hard to find on the 'net. Hopefully shuttle_guy can give us some numbers.<p>Roughly however, at about T+10s the vehicle rolls to put the crew's heads pointing in the correct launch azimuth - basically pointed up the East Coast for an ISS launch. Then you pitch up (relative to the crew, the nose actually comes down when you pull back on the stick) so that the crew's heads are pointed to the ground. Maintain that attitude until shortly after SRB sep and then roll to heads up. And stay in that attitude until MECO.<p>That's the basic idea, now we need some numbers.</p></p>

 

[arobie]

Ok, thank you najaB. Atleast I now have a basic idea of what to do. Like you said, all we need now are some numbers.<br /><br /><b><i>Hey Shuttle_Guy</i></b>, if you see this, could you help us out?

 

[davf]

Doesn't Orbiter have an auto-launch that is modelled on a Shuttle profile? Flying that and taking some notes would provide one possible answer, at least for the scenario being modelled.

 

[arobie]

Ah hah!! I found out how to launch to orbit in Atlantis. It is in a pdf file in the doc folder for orbiter. Atlantis_MMU_Sat_30.pdf is the file name.<br /><br />I'm going to copy it here:<br /><br />MET+0--------Launch<br />MET+2--------HUD to Surface Mode<br />MET+4--------Bring up Surface Mode MFD<br />MET+15-------Begin 180 degree roll<br />MET+55-------End Roll<br />MET+75-------Pitch to 80 degrees<br />MET+95-------Pitch to 70 degrees<br />MET+115-----Pitch to 60 degrees<br />MET+135-----Pitch to 50 degrees<br />MET+155-----Pitch to 40 degrees<br />MET+175-----Pitch to 30 degrees<br />MET+195-----Pitch to 20 degrees<br />MET+215-----Pitch to 10 degrees<br />MET+235-----Pitch to 0 degrees<br />-----------------Hold 0 degree pitch untill vertical speed drop to zero<br />-----------------Pitch to 30+ degrees untill vertical accel zero<br />-----------------Drop Pitch keeping vertical accel zero<br />-----------------Cut engines when Ecc reaches zero

 

[arobie]

<p>Orbiter is awesome. I am starting to get the hang of it. I played a tutorial where you start off on Olympus Space port on Mars.<br /><br />I first got into orbit and fixed my orbit to be perfectly circular. Then I planned and purposefully screwed it up to rendevous with Mars' first moon, Phobos. I actually made it there and fixed my orbit once there to stay near it. <br /><br />But of course I purposefully screwed that orbit up too. I planned and did another burn to make me rendevous with Mars' second moon, Deimos. I made it to that moon too!!. That's when the turorial ended. <br /><br />It didn't give me any more advice about how to fly, but I was able to figure out how to get back to mars in one piece by myself. I did a retrograde burn at...well just before...apogee to lower my perigee to close to Mars' surface. When I got close enough, I ajusted my orbit to be able to fly back to Mars's surface. <br /><br />I then reentered and was on my way to Olympus Spaceport, I could even see it from my cockpit. I was amazed I actually made it back to base, I didn't expect to end up any where close to base when I reentered, but I was able to make it to that general area and fly back.<br /><br />I was amost there, within 20 kilometers, and my dumb ship broke. My hovers malfunctioned and got stuck on full power. I fought it untill I ran out of fuel and managed to "land" within a few kilometers. It was a rough landing. I only rolled a "few" times before coming to a halt while upright. But like they say, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing", so I figure I did good. I mean I managed to land very close to base, my gear didn't break, and it wasn't too hard of a landing. <br /><br />I mean my ship didn't hit the ground and bounce back into space like it usually does when I crash...err land. I don't know how my ship has been able to bounce back into space. I think its a flaw in the program. I couldn't be coming at the ground that hard...</p>

 

[najab]

Congratulations on your first landing!!! <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[arobie]

Thanks najaB. It was lots of thinking, but lots of fun. It was very cool figuring everything out and dealing with the challenges and problems that popped up.

 

[kelle]

Wow, thanks for the link to Orbiter, najaB! Awesome program!! <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[arobie]

There is a Space Ship One addon for Orbiter. <br /><br />It is really tough, but lots of fun. My highest apogee is 85 Km.<br /><br />You fly the White Knight up to the altitude, release SS1, and ignite the engines and go up! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[arobie]

What is your highest apogee achieved on it? So far I have only managed to get to 91.7 kilometers. <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif" /> <br /><br />It is tougher than I expected. I want to fly with that extra fuel upgrade that they added for the X-Prize flights.

 

[caseyj78]

Hi Im new here and Im looking for a space shuttle simulation which one are you discussing

 

[arobie]

Hello casey.<br /><br />Welcome to space.com!<br /><br />The simulator that we were discussing was the one that Najab recommended, Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. It allows you to fly the shuttle, and also other types of space craft. It's an excellent space flight simulator. My favorite.<br /><br />Recently, I learned about the Space Shuttle Simulator which is completely devoted to shuttles. It is not completed yet, but it is already the best shuttle simulator out there. Be warned though, this simulator's learning curve is much steeper that Orbiter's steep learning curve. You fly the shuttles like the astronauts do. You have all the controls, buttons, bells, and whistles, and everything has a purpose. Very difficult. I'm stuck on the pad. LoL.

 

[gladiator1332]

THe Space Shuttle Simulator looks pretty good, but I still reccommend Orbiter. Just yesterday an STS-114 pack was released. <br /><br />And what is great its not just limited to one thing. The Project Mercury 5.0 add on may be the best add on ever developed. Its creators put an entire year of work into it. There is a Mercury sim for Mac under development, yet Mercury 5.0 surpasses it. <br /><br />I don't know if its really fair for me to give you my opinion though, I've been playing Orbiter for 3 years now and have been active in the forum there for just as long. So of course I'm going to say Orbiter is the best. <br />Right now I'm involved in a project get the entire Delta Family of rockets in Orbiter, everything from the Thor IRBM to the latest Deltas will be included. <br /><br />It really is a great sim and it is FREE. I couldn't beleive that the first time I saw that 3 years ago.