Recent content by jpv

When it is done. ;) I'm getting to the point where most of the easy stuff is done, now it's just endless testing and tweaking to make it all work together. I've been trying different booster implementations, easiest way seems to be writing the whole vehicle as one unit, discarding stages as we...

A couple of pics of the current status. First one shows the Orion shortly after stage separation and discarding the LAS (haven't yet managed to succesfully orbit the thing though). Second one has the capsule gently floating down (or rather violently crashing, since there's no aerodynamic model...

Not much new to show right now, been mostly writing the dll's. I've got the full staging system from launch to splashdown done for Orion now, but there's a lot of tweaking required to get it all working smoothly together, and then need to do the same treatment for Altair and the depot.

Yes, I was thinking of writing a really simple autopilot that would just calculate the location of the L2 point and do stationkeeping with thruster firings every now and then. Not very elegant but I'm hoping it'll keep the depot in the general vicinity of L2. I think actually navigating there...

I wasn't planning on simulating O2 and H2 separately since Orbiter doesn't really do that either, so it will likely just be a single propellant. Boiloff however is probably the most important issue in the architecture, so some loss propellant over time will need to be modeled. Like with the...

Setting up the Orbiter SDK in VC++ turned out to be very straightforward thanks to the great instructions here, so much fun learning and trying out the stuff you can do with it. Here's the ACES depot (artistically not-quite-at-EML2 ;) ) with Altair taking on fuel for a lunar excursion. Wonder...

So far yeah, but I'm hoping to improve on that. Here's the sort of detail I'm trying, just so the models don't look so sterile and boring. On a related note, rocket engines really are complicated machines. :blink:

Yes, that is reasonable, and I suppose one could add attachment points to the rear of the stage too, so they could be stacked together as a heavy-duty departure stage, for interplanetary missions etc.

Thanks! Velcro seems indeed the simplest solution for now, I'm hoping to eventually write custom launchers for them, but that'll likely be a while. UMMU and UCGO, surely not a problem if they're not too complex to add in. The vehicles are currently just cfg based, so they're not really...

Finally, here we have the ACES-Altair Dual Thrust Axis Lander (DTAL). Again built on the ACES 41 module, it comes in both cargo and crew versions. Initial deorbit burn is performed with the RL10 engines, after which the vehicle transitions to hover flight for landing. Here is the crew lander...

Here is probably the most important part of the architecture, the ACES propellant depot. It is made up of an ACES 41 module joined with an elongated ACES 71 module, for a total capacity of 121 tons of LOX and LH2. Between them is the depot module with solar panels providing power both to the...

Started work on the ACES-Orion CEV, essentially the Orion command module with it's service module replaced by an ACES 41 and an ECLSS module. With more powerful engines and larger fuel capacity, this CEV doesn't need a separate Earth departure stage for the lunar trip after topping off from a...

Hello, I am a long time Orbiter fan and forum lurker, figured I'd finally try my hand at some addon making. The intention of this project is to model the ACES lunar architecture proposed by ULA back in 2009. See the link at the end for the original document that I've used as a reference. So...