Space EVA to retrieve film cassettes
As soon as the space EVA is activated, the astronaut is seen either going out of the hatch or you will see from the EVA astronaut’s perspective, depending if you were in outside view or cockpit view. You will hear the dialog, which occurred during this time, on the Apollo 17 flight.
Obviously, it is not possible to simulate in Orbiter’s environment an astronaut moving to the camera location, retained by his umbilical and by holding the numerous handles installed on the vessel for this purpose. Your astronaut has no umbilical, but instead an invisible MMU, which allows you to control him with both Orbiter’s linear and rotational attitude controls. Use the standard Orbiter commands to move the astronaut.
The display line shows the actual translation mode (ROT or LIN), and the EVA duration. Eventually a warning message appears when oxygen runs low or critical. Finally, information about the film cassettes you must retrieve is also displayed. The data tells the distance from the left hand of the astronaut to the cassette handle.
The astronaut’s left hand must be less than 5 cm from the cassette for the astronaut to grab it automatically. A feedback sound is played when this occurs and the display line reads "IN HAND" instead of the distance remaining.
When the astronaut has a cassette in hand, he must return to the hatch to put the cassette inside the CSM. Just putting the left hand with the cassette a bit inside the hatch opening does this. The cassette will be automatically stored in the CSM. A feedback sound is played when this occurs and the information about this cassette disappears from the display line.
To terminate the EVA, you must maneuver the astronaut inside the CSM through the hatch. When he’s inside, PRECISELY on the middle seat, the hatch will close automatically. You may enter inside the CSM with a cassette in hand.
During the EVA you may switch focus between your astronaut and the CSM by using the "M" key.
The alternate action key "K" allows you to perform a "KILL-LINEAR". This function will kill any linear translation speed relative to the CSM vessel even if the astronaut has rotational movement.
Your EVA oxygen autonomy is 60 minutes. If you do not terminate the EVA before the oxygen is exhausted, you will die. In this case, you cannot do anything more with your astronaut than to use the "M" key to return the focus to the CSM. The hatch will close automatically if the astronaut dies. After 45min, "WARNING" will be displayed in the display line and "DANGER" 5min before the end of oxygen autonomy.
You may maneuver your astronaut from the outside view or cockpit view. The "cockpit" camera has been tuned to avoid graphic clipping at a reasonable distance and correspond to astronaut eyes view.
