NTR core propulsion stage (Aug.21, 2011, build 8) by wishbone
This is the notional core propulsion stage from Mars DRA 5.0.
AcknowledgementsMartin Schweiger for the Orbiter simulation environment, HST and ShuttlePB boilerplates which I (ab)used.http://www.orbiter-forum.com dwellers for ideas and suggestions, and of course for the desire to see the dream of a manned Mars mission come true.BrianJ for on-screen display code, and sun tracking (with RussH).Space Shuttle Ultra team for PID control and thrust vectoring code.Moach for suggesting the dummy thruster idea.T.Neo for staunch defense of nuclear propulsion that made me curious.NMolson for convincing me that animations are not that difficult.NASA, SAIC and all Mars mission planners.Anatoly S. Koroteev and his researchers for the wealth of theoretical and experimental data.Joshua Clough from UMD for his Ph.D. thesis on bi-modal NTRs.
Chris Knestrick and Tim Blaxland (for insights into attitude control).R.G.Ross and his colleagues for the Cryocoolers 11 proceedings.David G. Gilmore and other authors for "Spacecraft Thermal Control Handbook" (2002).Donald Rapp for cryoformulae from "Transporting hydrogen to the Moon or Mars and storing it there" (2006). ArtLav for solar panel texture.
 All errors are mine. The code (insofar as it is written by me and not anybody else) is public, see notes attached to code snippets for extra limitations. This is work in progress, so some things may not always go as planned. Formulas are common knowledgeâ¦
Changelog
Build 8: June 18, 2011Added loadable command scripts. Enhanced set of commands available through Alt-C. First attempt to texture the NTR core stage. When attitude autopilots are active, time acceleration is limited to 10x.
Installation and requirements
Installation is simple: just un-zip the archive into your Orbiter 2010 directory.Technical data are in the docs