OHM DarkEnergy Spaceplane

dirtydigs74

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Which engine? Ion-6 3rd stage?
There's a keybind to do it (as well as ullage, and fire the engine) from inside the DarkEnergy vessel.
Darkmatter. I just can't get my head around the pitch/yaw/roll concept wrt having the engine on the bottom of the craft. I'm so used to just using the prograde autopilot, I've become lazy in my conceptual thinking.
edit: I did just manage to land from a launch scenario, but I still get all mixed up with trying to circularise my orbit and do the DOI. Timings are fine, but my attitude(s) seem somewhat out. I'm trying to use pursuit mfd's attitude hold, but I think it's a case of 'garbage in, garbage out'.
 

Max-Q

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So you should be in a 110km circular orbit before undocking. Then you burn DOI with the DPS, Orbiter’s Nml+ autopilot works great for this. PursuitMFD does the entire descent for you totally automatically.
Doing it this way, there is really no need for a manual attitude burn If that helps.

For ascent, the autopilot places you in a 60km orbit, in-plane with DarkEnergy.
All the rendezvous burns are typically small enough to just burn with RCS.

That’s how I do it anyway.
 

dirtydigs74

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So you should be in a 110km circular orbit before undocking. Then you burn DOI with the DPS, Orbiter’s Nml+ autopilot works great for this. PursuitMFD does the entire descent for you totally automatically.
Doing it this way, there is really no need for a manual attitude burn If that helps.

For ascent, the autopilot places you in a 60km orbit, in-plane with DarkEnergy.
All the rendezvous burns are typically small enough to just burn with RCS.

That’s how I do it anyway.
My problem on that last attempt came from missing my LOI burn (didn't arm the MPS). I did it manually, but ended up in an ugly 156kx60k orbit. I fixed Apa with Darkenergy, and then managed to fix the Pea with Darkmatter. I had to hurry, my base overflight was only 1 orbit away. I thought orbit normal at ApA would basically be prograde, but it seems I've got that concept all wrong lol. Had to kind of wing it with PursuitMFD's att hold.
 

Max-Q

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Really really nice!!! Apparently the astronaut must have been sick due to low gravity and hard landing... and she put her sweatshirt inside-out :D (NASA logo)
ok... :rolleyes:
... really nice, as said.
Haha I guess I forgot to fix that one!
If you look at them I guess they are all like that, they all use the same texture... 😆 Are the crew in DarkEnergy also affected?
 

STS

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Hello, I´ve been "playing" around with DarkEnergy.
Nice addon! As some members said we need more addons like this.

As an spoiler alert that I will make public on my youtube channel soon, as I have a VR headset, I "discovered" that it is possible to play orbiter on the VR environment, and I have been doing tests with this addon. For VR the addon requires a VC.

I am going to make some "ergonomics" improvement requests for the VC wich I hope could be done:

  1. Buttons panel and Pyro arm switches panel: Too far away, small labels, hard to reach/read
    1. Could them be relocated above the CDR MFD´s, or where the autpilot/LV SEP pushbuttons are?
  2. Event timer and Mission timer
    1. Could we have this on the location of where the Pyro arm switches or the switches panel are? For me, being on the far right of the PLT panel makes these timers hard to see. Also, why is the Mission timer resettable but not the event timer?
  3. Make more use of white space on the "pedestal" panel
    1. I think that if the RCS jets panel is moved to one of the various free spaces on the pedestal, it is easier to read / manipulate the switches. Also labels are too small in my opinion. If this panel is moved there, this space could be used for maybe the autopilot pusbuttons, or even the Mach/G load meters.
  4. Mach/G load meters: Why round instead of tapes to the sides of the CDR MFD´s? Or even displayed on surface HUD and no analog indicators?
  5. Duplicate MWS/MCS for Pilot/Commander panels, just like in the Apollo/Shuttle cockpit.
dark-energy-ergonomy-1.png

dark-energy-ergonomy-2.png

dark-energy-ergonomy-3.png

Note, pictures are shown with 90º FOV wich is what I have to use for VR, but also these improvements may help the other types of pilots.

Again, a nice addon!
Best regards
 

Max-Q

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First, thanks for taking the time to test out the addon, and giving feedback!
VR sounds awesome, by the way...

Ok, so I'll take these one at a time.
Buttons panel and Pyro arm switches panel: Too far away, small labels, hard to reach/read
  1. Could them be relocated above the CDR MFD´s, or where the autpilot/LV SEP pushbuttons are?
So I wanted these where either crewmember could reach them, and duplicating the panels would be a real pain.
I was thinking cockpit design in terms of a two pilot environment as far as switch placement. (knowing, of course that Orbiter is sadly a single pilot situation)

Event timer and Mission timer
  1. Could we have this on the location of where the Pyro arm switches or the switches panel are? For me, being on the far right of the PLT panel makes these timers hard to see. Also, why is the Mission timer resettable but not the event timer?
Back to the two pilot thing again. So the pilot would be monitoring the timers and systems, and the commander would be flying.
The event timer is resettable, it's just not documented or labeled, I kinda forgot about it... If you "stop" it twice, it will reset.

Make more use of white space on the "pedestal" panel
  1. I think that if the RCS jets panel is moved to one of the various free spaces on the pedestal, it is easier to read / manipulate the switches. Also labels are too small in my opinion. If this panel is moved there, this space could be used for maybe the autopilot pusbuttons, or even the Mach/G load meters.
In theory it could be moved there, but think about reaching for the switches in a real vehicle. That would be an awkward angle to bend your arm, and in an emergency like a stuck thruster you want to be able to get to it fast.
As far as the Mach/G meters, in high G environments, especially entry contingencies, you may get tunnel vision and you want these really close to your normal line of sight forward.

Mach/G load meters: Why round instead of tapes to the sides of the CDR MFD´s? Or even displayed on surface HUD and no analog indicators?
Haha well, I wanted to make round gauges because they look cool... If you look at DarkMatter, I went to all tapes because they take less panel space.
Beyond that, no real reason.

Duplicate MWS/MCS for Pilot/Commander panels, just like in the Apollo/Shuttle cockpit.
That might be possible, I can take a look at it. It'll still only have one "Christmas tree" though.
 
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barrygolden

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this Dark Matter looks like a good advanced LM or a lander for early artemis landings but I see that it sinks into the surface or is tilted sideways
you might check with gattis about using his XEMU and FLEX they would really work with this
 

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barrygolden

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OK figured the RCS and undocking out but still lays on its side
might need to make one of the females black
 

Max-Q

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There's checklists for everything in the manual.
I've never had the sideways issue thing, did you move it or place it on the surface with scenario editor?
 

Max-Q

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It's because DarkMatter uses 4 touchdown points for landing. When you move something with scenario editor, it only takes into account the first 3.
Firing the RCS or something will fix it.
 

WingC3

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Hi @Max-Q ! Thanks for making these modules. I have a few questions I haven't seen asked so far:

1. Base changes: I notice that Ion6 wants to replace the canaveral.cfg file. What are the consequences of doing that on scenarios that don't involve Ion6/Dark Energy. Will the SpaceX LC39 still work? Is this a mandatory change?
2. SpaceX Module Compatibility: Can it coexist with the Dragon spacecraft in the same scenario? I notice they both require "Context" parameters in the scenario file. If they can coexist, do they need to be listed in any particular order? Could they dock with one another?
3. Lunar Rover and Astronauts: Can these be used in a standalone fashion? (Spawned at Brighton Beach for example) If so, how would you recommend doing so. Or, are they tied to the Dark Matter Lander?

Possible Documentation Correction:
Lastly, on the DE Expansion Manual in the EPS section, the diagram is updated to list the solar panel, but the corresponding text block lists "external docking power". Also, the diagram does NOT show an external docking power connection, and thus, is it correct to assume that the Expansion craft cannot get umbilical power when docked/provide it to the DM Lander?

Thanks in advance!
 

gattispilot

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Great. How did you put the hud pitchladder,.... on the HUD window.

I get that slant, fired RCS it moved and then went back slanted. Could it be the location?
LM:DarkMatter\DarkMatter STATUS Landed Moon POS 3.4658517 -85.9993692 HEADING 123.81 ALT 1.466 AROT -2.792 37.174 -162.353 AFCMODE 7 PRPLEVEL 0:0.964833 1:1.000000 2:0.905444 NAVFREQ 0 0 CONFIGURATION 0

Also it seems the view is locked. So by using CTRL and arrows I was able to change view. But could not move the view using the mouse
 

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WingC3

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Hi again, also getting this error when I try to load the vehicle in Open Orbiter x86's Feb 1 2024 build:

Code:
000046.239: D3D9ERROR: SurfNative: GetDC() Failed
000046.244: D3D9ERROR: Surface name is [DarkEnergy\DarkEnergy_2.dds] OAPI_Handle=0x15B4AC80
000046.249: D3D9ERROR: OAPI_Attribs: OAPISURFACE_TEXTURE,
000046.253: DX9_DUMP: Mips = 12
000046.258: DX9_DUMP: Type = Texture
000046.263: DX9_DUMP: Usage = DEFAULT
000046.268: DX9_DUMP: Pool = D3DPOOL_DEFAULT
000046.272: DX9_DUMP: Format = OAPISURFACE_PF_DXT5  (894720068)
000046.276: DX9_DUMP: Multisample = 0
000046.281: DX9_DUMP: Size = (2048, 2048)
 

barrygolden

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I really like the Lunar lander but its not very user friendly and again when called up with scn ed it does seem stuck sideways in the surface. I think this craft could be used for early Artemis landings and the lower part for cargo flights. Something new is when you go to the VCyou are unable to look around so you can''t find the switches to move to undock
 

WingC3

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Short tutorial video for how to configure Dark Energy for a manual launch instead of the countdown autosequence:
 
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